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White Potato Croquettes

A fried snack made from riced potatoes, butter, egg, and spices, coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

White Potato Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. In a bowl, combine hot riced potatoes, butter, salt, pepper, cayenne, and egg yolk.

  2. Beat the mixture thoroughly until well combined.

Shape and coat

  1. Shape the mixture into desired forms.

  2. Dip each shape in breadcrumbs, then in beaten egg, and again in breadcrumbs.

Fry and drain

  1. Fry in deep fat until golden brown, then drain on brown paper.

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

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

  2. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the soft, moldable body of the croquettes, giving them most of their texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender, moist interior.
Egg
Binds the potato mixture so the shapes hold together, and helps the breadcrumb coating stick.
Breadcrumbs (in the method)
Form a coating that browns and crisps in the hot fat.

The step that matters

Fry in deep fat until golden brown. The fat must be hot enough to brown and crisp the breadcrumb coating quickly. If it is too cool, the croquettes absorb excess oil and turn greasy, and the centre may not heat through before the outside darkens.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, 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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