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Veal Croquettes

Veal croquettes are small balls of ground veal mixed with milk, parsley, lemon, and spices, coated in breadcrumbs and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Veal Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the veal

  1. Boil the veal until cooked.

  2. Let the veal cool.

  3. Grind the cooled veal using a meat grinder.

Make the binding mixture

  1. Combine 1 cup of milk and 1 cup of veal broth in a double boiler.

  2. Mix 2 tablespoons of flour with 2 tablespoons of milk.

  3. Pour the flour mixture into the hot milk mixture.

  4. Stir the mixture until it thickens.

  5. Add chopped parsley, lemon juice, nutmeg, salt, pepper, and onion juice if desired.

Coat and fry

  1. Mold the mixture into balls.

  2. Beat 1 egg with 1 tablespoon of hot water.

  3. Dip the balls in the egg mixture.

  4. Roll the balls in fine bread crumbs.

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

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

  5. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the main body of the croquettes, giving them a firm, meaty texture when ground and bound.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess to the veal, forming a soft sauce that holds the mixture together.
Flour
Thickens the hot milk as its starch swells, helping the mixture hold its shape for molding.
Egg
Gives the bread crumb coating a sticky layer that adheres and helps it brown when fried.
Fine bread crumbs
Form a crisp outer crust that browns in the hot lard and contrasts with the soft interior.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich veal and balances its savory flavor.

The step that matters

Stir the mixture until it thickens. Flour starch thickens the hot milk only when heated and stirred, and stirring keeps it smooth without lumps. The mixture must be thick enough to mold, since a loose mixture will not hold its shape in the hot lard.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, lemon, milk, parsley, flour, egg, pepper):

  1. Marjoramfits about as well
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Nutmegthe original
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, lemon, milk, parsley, flour, egg, pepper. 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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