Skip to main content
Dessert

Apple Croquettes

Apple croquettes are fried apple cakes coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Apple Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the apple base

  1. Combine apples, butter, and water in a saucepan; cover and stew gently until tender.

  2. Press the cooked apples through a sieve and return to the heat.

  3. Add sugar to taste, cornstarch mixed with a little cold water, and salt; stir until thickened.

  4. Cover and cook slowly for 15 minutes; then turn out onto a greased dish and let cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into small croquettes; roll in bread crumbs, dip in beaten egg, and roll again.

  2. Fry the croquettes in deep oil until golden brown; then drain on unglazed paper.

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. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Apple + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,790 recipes

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

  4. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

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

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Tart apples
Provide the main body and flavour of the croquettes, softening into a purée when stewed.
Cornstarch
Thickens the sieved apple mixture so it holds its shape for forming.
Butter
Adds richness and a smoother mouthfeel to the stewed apples.
Egg
Binds the bread crumb coating so it adheres and browns during frying.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when the croquettes are fried.

The step that matters

Cooling the apple mixture before shaping. The thickened purée must cool fully so it firms up enough to hold a shape; shaping it warm makes it soft and likely to slump or break during coating and frying.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, bread, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Datesfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, bread, 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.

You might also like

Apple Bread PuddingApple Bread Pudding21 recipesApple PuddingApple Pudding256 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding153 recipesSoft Ginger BreadSoft Ginger Bread85 recipes