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Spinach Croquettes

Spinach croquettes are fried, breaded spinach cakes seasoned with onion, butter, flour, cheese, eggs, milk, salt, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Spinach Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Brown the onion in butter, then remove the pieces.

  2. Stir in the chopped spinach.

  3. Gradually add flour, bread crumbs, grated cheese, beaten egg yolks, milk, salt, and nutmeg.

Shape and fry

  1. Mold the mixture while warm on a floured board.

  2. Fry the croquettes until golden brown.

Finish and serve

  1. Drain, place on a dish, sprinkle with grated cheese, drizzle with melted butter, and heat in the oven.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  4. Spinach + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,336 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

Eggs
Egg yolks bind the mixture so the croquettes hold their shape when fried.
Flour
Thickens the spinach mixture so it can be molded rather than staying loose.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and add body, helping the croquettes firm up for shaping.
Grated cheese
Adds savory flavor and helps bind the mixture while melting slightly with heat.
Spinach
Main bulk of the croquettes, contributing moisture and a vegetable flavor.

The step that matters

Mold the mixture while warm on a floured board.. Warm mixture is softer and easier to shape, while flour on the board keeps it from sticking. Shaping cold mixture is harder, and it firms up as it cools, so timing matters.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (spinach, butter, flour, bread, cheese, egg, milk):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against spinach, butter, flour, bread, cheese, egg, milk. 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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