Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Veal Croquettes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard
Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Add the flour and stir until combined.
Gradually add the cream, boiling until it thickens to custard consistency.
Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Mix in the chopped veal.
Shape and fry
Form the mixture into balls.
Dip each ball in beaten eggs, then roll in bread crumbs.
Fry in a mixture of butter and lard until golden brown.
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.
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Chopped veal
- Forms the main body of the croquette, giving it meaty substance and flavour.
- Cream
- Thickens into a custard that binds the veal and keeps the filling moist.
- Flour
- Thickens the butter and cream into a smooth base that holds the mixture together.
- Eggs
- Coat the balls so the bread crumbs stick, and set to form a crisp shell when fried.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a golden, crunchy outer crust during frying.
The step that matters
Boiling the cream to custard consistency. The cream must thicken enough to hold its shape once cooled. If it is too thin, the balls will be soft and may fall apart in the frying fat.
“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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