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Egg Croquettes

Egg Croquettes are fried, breaded egg cakes made with poached eggs, butter, onion, flour, stock, yolks, bread crumbs, cheese, and seasoning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Fannie Merritt Farmer · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Egg Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs and sauce base

  1. Poach eggs and dry on a towel.

  2. Cook butter with onion for three minutes.

  3. Add flour and, gradually, stock.

  4. Season with salt and pepper; then add yolks of eggs slightly beaten.

  5. Cook one minute, and cool.

Coat and fry

  1. Cover eggs with mixture, roll in bread crumbs and cheese, using equal parts.

  2. Dip in egg, again roll in crumbs.

  3. Fry in deep fat.

  4. Drain on brown paper.

Serve

  1. Serve with a thin sauce made of equal parts white stock and cream, seasoned with grated cheese, salt, and paprika.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

798Calories
28 gProtein
28 gFat
108 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Cheese1 oz (28g) cheddar113
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By Fannie Merritt Farmer. 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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

Eggs
Poached eggs are the centerpiece, and the yolk mixture binds the coating around them.
Butter
Fat that softens the onion and carries flavor into the base before the flour goes in.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a stiff sauce-like mixture that holds the eggs in a coating.
White stock
Liquid that gives the flour-butter base body and savory flavor.
Stale bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned outer shell when fried in deep fat.

The step that matters

Cook the base for one minute, then cool it before coating. The beaten yolks are a binder that sets with heat, so the mixture must be cooked briefly and cooled enough to handle. If it stays hot or is overcooked, it can scramble or become too stiff, and the coating may split or fall off in the fat.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, flour, pepper, bread, cheese. 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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