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Parsnip Croquettes

A fried patty made from mashed boiled parsnips, egg, salt, pepper, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Parsnip Croquettes

Why it works: Parsnip and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 669 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Parsnip Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Mash the cold boiled parsnips until fine.

  2. Add the beaten egg, salt, pepper, and enough flour to hold the mixture together.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into small, flat cakes.

  2. Fry the cakes in a pan until 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Parsnip + flourtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together669 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Parsnip + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,109 recipes

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

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Parsnip + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together442 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Parsnips
Form the bulk of the croquettes and provide sweetness and a soft, moist texture.
Egg
Binds the mashed parsnip so the cakes hold their shape when cooked.
Flour
Absorbs moisture and stiffens the mixture so it can be shaped without falling apart.

The step that matters

Forming and frying the cakes. If the mixture is too wet, the cakes will be soft and may break apart in the pan. Enough flour helps them hold together, and frying in a hot pan lets the outside brown and set before the inside turns loose.

Swap the parsnip

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

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Parsnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, flour. 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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