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French Potato Croquettes

Fried mashed potato balls coated in flour, egg, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,115 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

French Potato Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Prepare and cook potatoes the same as for potato croquettes.

Make the mixture

  1. To two cupfuls of hot mashed potatoes add one tablespoonful of butter, three tablespoonfuls of cream, one-third cupful of grated cheese, three-fourths teaspoonful of salt, one-eighth teaspoonful of paprika, a slight grating of nutmeg, and the yolks of two eggs. Beat thoroughly.

  2. Shape into balls.

  3. Roll into rolls pointed at ends.

Shape and fry

  1. Roll in flour, egg, and crumbs.

  2. Mark in three places on top of each with a knife blade to represent a small French loaf.

  3. Fry in deep fat and drain on brown paper.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

573Calories
18 gProtein
33 gFat
52 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 10 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Cheese1 oz (28g) cheddar113
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

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. See the original page.

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. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

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

  4. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the croquette and give a soft, tender interior.
Eggs
Bind the mixture so the shaped croquettes hold together while frying.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the mashed potato base.
Grated cheese
Adds savoury flavour and richness to the mixture.

The step that matters

Beat thoroughly. Beating the mashed potato with butter, cream, and egg yolks makes the mixture smooth and evenly bound. Lumps or uneven moisture can make the balls crack or fall apart when rolled and fried.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, cream, sugar, almond, cheese, egg, nutmeg):

  1. Sweet potatofits about as well
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, sugar, almond, cheese, egg, nutmeg. 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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