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Bean or Pea Croquettes

A fried croquette made from mashed potatoes, mashed peas or beans, milk, flour, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and peas are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,016 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Bean or Pea Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the drippings in a pan.

  2. Add onions and cook until golden brown.

  3. Stir in the flour and blend well.

  4. Gradually add the milk.

  5. Cook until the mixture is thick enough to drop from a spoon.

Shape and fry

  1. Combine with the mashed potatoes and peas or beans.

  2. Let stand for 2 to 3 hours.

  3. Shape the mixture into balls or croquettes.

  4. Dip each croquette in egg and breadcrumbs.

  5. Fry in deep fat until golden.

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. Potato + peastop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,016 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  3. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Peas + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,331 recipes

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

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Mashed potatoes
Provides bulk and a soft, tender body that holds the croquette together.
Mashed peas or beans
Adds the main flavour and body, giving the croquettes their character.
Flour
Thickens the milk and drippings into a sauce that binds the mixture.
Milk
Adds moisture and makes the flour-based sauce smooth and creamy.

The step that matters

Cook the sauce until thick enough to drop from a spoon. Flour thickens as it cooks and absorbs liquid. If the sauce is too thin, the mixture will not hold its shape when formed and may fall apart in the fat.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, milk, flour, pepper):

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Milletfits better
  3. Beansfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, milk, flour, pepper. 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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