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Cheese Croquettes

Cheese croquettes are oblong pieces of cheese and white sauce coated in breadcrumbs and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,849 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cheese Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Mix the white sauce, grated onion, and cheese together.

  2. Allow the mixture to cool, then fold in the beaten egg whites.

  3. Chill the mixture, then cut it into oblong pieces.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each piece in breadcrumbs and fry until golden.

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. Onion + cheesetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,849 recipes

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

  2. Sauce + cheesetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sauce + oniontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Cheese + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,253 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Onion + eggtop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together23,333 recipes

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

Sauce and onion barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,474 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

White sauce
Forms the creamy base that holds the croquette together.
Cheese
Adds rich flavor and melts into the filling for a soft, savory center.
Egg whites
Fold in to add lightness and help the mixture set when chilled and cooked.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns during frying.

The step that matters

Chilling the mixture before shaping. Cooling and chilling firm the mixture so the pieces hold their shape. If it is still warm or soft, the croquettes can lose their form or burst open in the hot fat.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, cheese, egg):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Welsh onionfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, cheese, 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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