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Dessert

Croquettes De Pommes

A fried apple mixture formed into oval balls, coated in breadcrumbs or batter, and served with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Croquettes De Pommes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare the apples as you would for a charlotte and let them cool.

  2. Form oval balls with the apple mixture.

Coat and fry

  1. Roll the balls in slightly dampened bread crumbs or in a batter.

  2. Dip them in beaten egg like rice croquettes.

  3. Fry until golden brown, sprinkle with sugar, and serve.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  2. Apple + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Apple + eggtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,461 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Apples
Form the main filling, providing bulk, moisture and fruity flavour.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, sprinkled on hot croquettes, a light caramelised finish.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp outer coating that browns during frying.
Egg
Binds the breadcrumb coating so it adheres to the croquettes.

The step that matters

Let the apples cool before forming the balls. Warm apple mixture is soft and sticky, so the balls can lose shape and tear the coating. Cooling firms the mixture so it holds its oval form through breading and frying.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, bread, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Datesfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, bread, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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