Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Potato Croquettes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
In a bowl, combine mashed potatoes, butter, salt, celery seed, onion, and parsley.
Mold the mixture into desired shapes.
Coat and fry
Roll each croquette in cracker or bread crumbs and then in the egg yolk.
Fry in a kettle of hot lard until golden brown.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,810 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,855 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,047 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mashed potatoes
- Form the main body of the croquette and give it a soft, tender interior.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, contributing moisture and flavor to the potato mixture.
- Egg yolk
- Binds the crumb coating and helps it brown evenly during frying.
- Cracker or bread crumbs
- Form a crisp outer crust that browns when fried.
The step that matters
Fry in a kettle of hot lard until golden brown. If the lard is not hot enough, the coating absorbs fat and turns greasy before it browns. Hot oil sets the crust quickly, keeping the inside moist and the outside crisp.
Swap the celery
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, butter, onion, parsley, bread, egg):
- Thymefits better
- Capersfits better
- Garlicfits better
- Celerythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, onion, parsley, bread, egg. 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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