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Croquettes De Bouilli

A fried croquette made from boiled beef mixed with white sauce, egg yolks, parsley, and seasonings, coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Croquettes De Bouilli

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Prepare 700 grams of boiled beef as for hash.

  2. In a 2‑liter saucepan, make 4 deciliters of white sauce and reduce it to 3 deciliters.

  3. Stir in 3 egg yolks and add the minced beef.

  4. Mix in 1 tablespoon of chopped parsley, ¼ teaspoon of salt, and 2 pinches of pepper.

  5. Spread the mixture on a flat surface to a thickness of 4 centimeters and let it cool.

  6. Divide the mixture into sixteen equal parts.

Shape and coat

  1. Sprinkle a layer of bread crumbs on the table, about 2 millimeters thick.

  2. Place the sixteen portions on the bread crumbs, spacing them 6 centimeters apart.

  3. Cover them with another layer of bread crumbs of the same thickness.

  4. Shape each portion into a cylinder as evenly as possible.

  5. Beat the reserved 3 egg whites for 1 minute until broken but not foamy.

  6. Add 2 pinches of salt and 1 pinch of pepper to the egg whites.

  7. Dip each cylinder in the beaten egg whites, then coat with bread crumbs.

  8. Arrange them on a tray.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat oil for frying 20 minutes before serving.

  2. Fry the croquettes until golden and firm, shaking them gently for even coloring.

  3. Remove them, sprinkle with salt, and serve garnished with parsley.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Boiled beef
Forms the bulk of the croquette filling and gives it its meaty flavor.
White sauce
Binds the beef into a moist mixture that holds its shape when cooled and shaped.
Egg yolks
Enrich the filling and help bind it while it sets.
Egg whites
Form a thin coating that helps the bread crumbs adhere and crisp during frying.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites until broken but not foamy. Egg whites that are overbeaten trap too much air and foam, so the coating can separate or fry unevenly. Lightly broken whites form an even, cohesive film that holds the bread crumbs.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Capersfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, sauce, egg, pepper, bread. 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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