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Reef Croquettes

Beef croquettes made with leftover beef, bread crumbs, onions, herbs, and spices, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,062 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Reef Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Fry the chopped onion in butter in a saucepan until brown.

  2. Mix the fried onion with the chopped beef and bread crumbs.

  3. Add parsley, salt, white pepper, nutmeg, eggs, and cream. Mix well for 5 minutes.

  4. Let the mixture stand until set, then shape into croquettes.

Fry and serve

  1. Coat the croquettes in flour.

  2. Fry the coated croquettes in a skillet with lard or butter until golden brown, turning as needed.

  3. Remove the croquettes from the skillet.

  4. Drain the croquettes on paper towels.

  5. Serve the croquettes with horseradish sauce.

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

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

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 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

Leftover beef
Forms the bulk of the croquette and gives it a meaty texture.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help the mixture hold together when shaped.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set when heated, holding the croquette together.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savory aroma when fried until brown first.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness to the filling.
Flour
Forms a coating that helps the outside brown and crisp when fried.

The step that matters

Letting the mixture stand until set before shaping. Bread crumbs absorb liquid from the eggs and cream and the eggs firm as they rest, so the mixture becomes stiff enough to shape. Shaping too soon can leave croquettes soft and likely to break apart in the pan.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, bread, butter, onion, parsley, nutmeg, egg):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, bread, butter, onion, parsley, nutmeg, 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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