Skip to main content
Main

French Potato Croquettes

A fried potato croquette shaped like a small loaf, coated in flour, egg, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

French Potato Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine hot mashed potatoes, butter, cream, grated cheese, salt, paprika, nutmeg, and egg yolks in a bowl.

  2. Beat the mixture thoroughly until well combined.

  3. Shape the mixture into balls.

  4. Roll each ball into a pointed shape.

Coat and fry

  1. Coat each croquette in flour.

  2. Dip the coated croquette in beaten egg.

  3. Roll the croquette in breadcrumbs.

  4. Make three small cuts on top of each croquette to resemble a small French loaf.

  5. Fry the croquettes in deep fat until golden brown.

  6. Drain the fried croquettes on brown paper.

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

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

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

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

  3. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  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

Mashed potatoes
Provides the main body and bulk of the croquette filling.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and add richness so it holds its shape.
Grated cheese
Adds savoury flavour and helps the filling bind.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, moister interior.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the potato filling.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Fry the croquettes in deep fat until golden brown. Frying at a steady hot temperature crisps and browns the breadcrumb coating quickly, so the potato inside heats through without the outside becoming greasy or burnt.

Swap the potato

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

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

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

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesMacaroni and CheeseMacaroni and Cheese102 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipes