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Veal or Chicken Croquettes

A fried patty made from veal or chicken, breadcrumbs, eggs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Veal or Chicken Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. In a bowl, combine chopped veal or chicken, bread crumbs, egg yolks, pepper, salt, parsley, grated onion, cream, and lemon juice.

  2. Mix until well combined and form into balls.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each ball into the beaten egg, then coat with fine bread crumbs.

  2. Fry in boiling lard until golden brown.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal or chicken
Provides the main body and meaty texture of the croquettes.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help the mixture hold together when shaped.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and add richness to the filling.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness to the filling.
Beaten egg
Creates a sticky layer so the fine crumbs adhere before frying.

The step that matters

Coat and fry in boiling lard. The croquettes must be firmly coated and the lard hot enough to brown the outside quickly. Oil that is too cool lets the coating soak up fat and the centre stay soft before the crust sets.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, bread, egg, pepper, parsley, cream, lemon):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, bread, egg, pepper, parsley, cream, lemon. 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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