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Veal Croquettes

Veal croquettes are small balls of veal mixed with a thickened sauce, coated in crumbs, and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Veal Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a stew pan.

  2. Add mushrooms, parsley, flour, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  3. Boil the mixture until it thickens.

  4. Moisten the sauce with cream and broth or gravy.

  5. Ensure the sauce is as thick as porridge.

Form and fry

  1. Mix in the cold chopped veal.

  2. Let the mixture cool.

  3. Form the mixture into balls.

  4. Roll the balls in cracker dust or bread crumbs.

  5. Fry the balls in hot oil until light brown.

Serve

  1. Serve with fried parsley.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the sauce base and adds a rich, savory flavor.
Flour
Thickens the sauce so it holds its shape around the veal.
Cold veal
Forms the main body of the croquette, giving substance and meaty texture.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness to the sauce, keeping the filling tender.
Cracker dust or bread crumbs
Forms a crisp outer coating that browns when fried.

The step that matters

Ensure the sauce is as thick as porridge. The sauce must be thick enough to bind the chopped veal. A thin mixture will not hold its shape when formed into balls and may break apart or soak the coating in hot oil.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, mushroom, flour, pepper, nutmeg, cream, veal):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Cinnamonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, mushroom, flour, pepper, nutmeg, cream, veal. 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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