Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Hominy Croquettes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the filling
Cook the hominy until quite tender, then set aside to cool slightly.
Add butter, milk or cream, and sugar to the hominy and mix well.
Form the mixture into balls.
Coat and fry
Dip each ball in beaten eggs, then coat with cracker crumbs or flour.
Fry the croquettes in hot lard until golden brown.
Drain on brown paper to absorb excess grease and serve immediately while hot.
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 + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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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
- Line-grained hominy
- Forms the bulk of the croquette and gives it a soft, starchy body when cooked tender.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, softening the mixture and improving its flavour.
- Milk or cream
- Adds moisture so the hominy mixture holds together and stays tender.
- Beaten eggs
- Bind the coating to the balls and set during frying to form a crisp shell.
- Cracker crumbs or flour
- Form the dry outer layer that browns and crisps in the hot lard.
The step that matters
Fry in hot lard until golden brown. Lard must be hot enough to crisp the coating quickly; if it is too cool, the croquettes absorb excess grease and turn soggy instead of browning.
“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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