Skip to main content
Main

Croquettes of Sweetbreads

A fried croquette made from veal sweetbreads, eggs, butter, cream, and seasoned with onion, salt, pepper, and coated in cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Croquettes of Sweetbreads

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sweetbreads

  1. Soak four veal sweetbreads in cold salted water for one hour, removing pipes and membranes.

  2. Boil the sweetbreads in salted water with a tablespoonful of vinegar for twenty minutes.

  3. Transfer the sweetbreads to cold water to harden.

  4. Remove the sweetbreads, chop them very finely, almost to a paste.

  5. Season the paste with salt, pepper, and a teaspoonful of grated onion.

Make the mixture

  1. Add the beaten yolks of three raw eggs, one tablespoonful of butter, half a cupful of cream, and enough fine cracker crumbs to make a stiff mixture suitable for rolling into little balls or cork-shaped croquettes.

  2. Prepare a frying kettle half full of fat over the fire.

  3. Place a dish containing three smoothly beaten eggs and a large platter of cracker dust nearby.

  4. Wet your hands with cold water and shape the mixture into croquettes.

Coat and fry

  1. Roll each croquette in cracker dust, then in beaten egg, and again in cracker dust.

  2. Smooth the outside of each croquette.

  3. Carefully drop the croquettes into the hot fat.

  4. Fry until a nice golden brown.

  5. Place the fried croquettes on brown paper to drain excess grease.

  6. Serve hot with sliced lemon or parsley.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

284Calories
8 gProtein
22 gFat
13 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Vealnot 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.

By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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

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

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + oniontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal sweetbreads
Form the main body of the croquettes, giving them a soft, rich filling when chopped fine.
Raw eggs
Bind the chopped mixture so it holds its shape when rolled and fried.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness to the filling, keeping it from drying out.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the filling, improving flavour and tenderness.
Cracker crumbs (in the method)
Give the mixture body so it can be shaped, and form a crisp, browned outer coating.

The step that matters

Coat and fry in hot fat. The egg and cracker-dust coating must be firm and evenly covered so the croquettes hold together. Fat that is hot enough browns the crust quickly and keeps the filling from absorbing grease.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, vinegar, cream, veal, egg, pepper. 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.

More sweetbread croquettes recipes

Chicken 7 See all 61 →

You might also like

Veal PattiesVeal Patties50 recipesBeef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipes