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English Potato Balls, or Croquettes

A fried potato ball made from mashed potatoes, butter, eggs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

English Potato Balls, or Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Boil floury potatoes very dry.

  2. Mash them as smoothly as possible.

  3. Season them with salt and white pepper.

  4. Warm them with about an ounce of butter per pound, or more if needed, and a few spoonfuls of good cream.

  5. Boil them very dry again.

  6. Let them cool a little.

Shape and fry

  1. Roll the mixture into balls.

  2. Sprinkle crushed vermicelli over the balls.

  3. Fry the balls until a fine light brown.

Alternative method

  1. Boil good potatoes as dry as possible, or use Captain Kater’s receipt.

  2. Mash a pound of the boiled potatoes very smoothly.

  3. While still warm, mix in two ounces of fresh butter, a teaspoonful of salt, a little nutmeg, the beaten yolks of four eggs, and whisked whites.

  4. Mould the mixture with a teaspoon.

  5. Drop the moulded balls into a small pan of boiling butter or very pure lard.

  6. Fry the boulettes for five minutes over a moderate fire.

  7. Drain the boulettes well.

  8. Dish them on a hot napkin.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

180Calories
6 gProtein
17 gFat
1 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
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 Eliza Acton. 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 + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 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

Potatoes (in the method)
Form the bulk of the croquettes; dryness keeps the mixture firm enough to shape.
Butter
Adds richness and smoothness, and carries flavour into the mash.
Eggs
Yolks bind the mixture and whites add lightness; they also help the outside set and brown.
Cream (in the method)
Adds moisture and softness to the mashed potato.

The step that matters

Boil the potatoes very dry. Excess water makes the mash loose and sticky, so the balls will not hold their shape and may burst or absorb oil while frying. Drying the potatoes thoroughly, and cooling them slightly before shaping, gives a firm mixture that fries cleanly.

“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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