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Potato Croquettes

A fried ball made from mashed potatoes, onion juice, eggs, cream, butter, and cayenne, coated in crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Potato Croquettes

Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Potato Croquettes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Combine mashed potatoes, onion juice, beaten egg yolks, salt, cream, butter, and cayenne in a saucepan.

  2. Stir well and heat until hot, then remove from heat and let cool.

  3. Once cooled, form the mixture into balls.

Coat and chill

  1. Dip each ball first in beaten eggs, then coat with cracker or bread crumbs.

  2. Place the balls in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat deep fat in a frying basket and fry the balls until golden brown.

  2. Drain on brown paper and keep hot until served.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mashed potatoes
Forms the bulk of the croquette, providing the soft, moist interior.
Egg yolks
Bind the potato mixture and add richness and structure as they set with heat.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more tender interior.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the filling soft.
Beaten eggs
Act as a glue so the crumb coating adheres evenly to each ball.
Cracker or bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Chilling the shaped balls. Chilling firms the butter and starches in the potato mixture so the balls hold their shape and the coating stays intact in hot fat.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, egg, cream, butter, bread. 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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