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Potato Croquettes

A fried ball of mashed potatoes, ham, nutmeg, parsley, and egg yolks coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Potato Croquettes

Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Potato Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Pass the boiled potatoes through a sieve.

  2. Add the minced ham, nutmeg, salt, pepper, and chopped parsley to the potatoes.

  3. Work in the egg yolks until well combined.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape the mixture into balls and roll them in bread crumbs.

  2. Fry the croquettes in hot lard until golden brown.

  3. 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.

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.

  1. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  4. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  5. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the croquette, giving a soft, starchy interior.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture so the croquettes hold their shape when shaped and fried.
Ham
Adds savory, salty flavor throughout the potato mixture.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns during frying.

The step that matters

Fry in hot lard until golden brown. If the lard is not hot enough, the croquettes absorb excess fat and turn greasy, and the coating will not crisp properly before the soft interior heats through.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, nutmeg, pepper, parsley, egg, bread):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, nutmeg, pepper, parsley, egg, bread. 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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