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Yeal Croquettes

Veal croquettes are small, fried meatballs made from finely chopped veal, onions, eggs, and seasonings, coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Yeal Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil the veal until tender.

  2. Chop the veal very finely, reserving some of the cooking liquid.

  3. Chop the onions.

  4. Fry the onions in butter until very soft.

  5. Mix the chopped veal with the beaten egg yolks, onions, and seasonings.

  6. Add the egg whites and reserved cooking liquid to the mixture.

Shape and fry

  1. Mold the mixture into croquettes.

  2. Dip the croquettes in bread crumbs.

  3. Fry the croquettes in butter until light brown.

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. Thyme + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  5. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the main body of the croquettes, and its finely chopped meat gives them a tender, cohesive filling.
Eggs
Egg yolks bind the filling, while whites add lightness and help the croquettes hold their shape.
Onions
Softened in butter, they add sweetness and savory depth to the filling.

The step that matters

Frying the onions until very soft. Onions cooked slowly until fully soft release their moisture and sugars, so they blend smoothly into the filling instead of leaving wet, sharp pieces that can loosen the croquettes.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, parsley, thyme, sage, pepper, butter, egg):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, parsley, thyme, sage, pepper, butter, 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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