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Mock Sweetbread Croquettes

A fried croquette made from calf brains, veal, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Mock Sweetbread Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the brains

  1. Remove membrane and blood vessels from the brains, wash well, and soak in salted water for 15 minutes.

  2. Drain the brains, place them in a saucepan, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil.

  3. Drain and cool the brains, then cut them into fine pieces.

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, make a sauce with butter, flour, and milk, then add the brains and veal along with the seasonings, parsley, and onion juice.

  2. Mix thoroughly and refrigerate until very cold.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape the mixture into croquettes and fry according to general directions.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Calf's brains
Provide the soft, delicate meat that forms the body of the croquettes.
Veal
Adds meaty body and bulk to the filling.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a sauce that binds the filling together.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and adds fat for a rich flavor and smooth texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and creaminess.

The step that matters

Refrigerate until very cold. A thoroughly chilled mixture is firm enough to shape without slumping. Cold filling also helps the croquettes hold their shape when they hit the hot fat.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper, flour, parsley, butter, milk):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, flour, parsley, butter, milk. 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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