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Meat Croquetts

A fried dish of seasoned meat formed into croquettes and pan‑fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Meat Croquetts

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. In a bowl, combine the meat, bread crumbs, eggs, parsley, cayenne pepper, and salt.

  2. Add enough broth to create a mixture that holds together.

Shape and cook

  1. Shape the mixture into croquettes.

  2. In a skillet, melt the butter over medium heat.

  3. Cook the croquettes in the skillet until they are light brown on all sides.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Meat
Forms the main body of the croquettes and gives them savory flavor and substance.
Eggs
Bind the mixture so the croquettes hold their shape when cooked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and add body, helping the mixture hold together.
Butter
Fat for the skillet that browns the outside of the croquettes and adds flavor.

The step that matters

Add enough broth to create a mixture that holds together. Too little liquid leaves the mixture crumbly and hard to shape, while too much makes it soft and likely to fall apart in the pan. Adding broth gradually lets you reach a firm, shapeable texture.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Thymefits less well
  4. Sagefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, bread, egg, pepper, butter. 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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