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Sweet Potato Croquettes

A fried snack made from mashed sweet potatoes, eggs, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Sweet Potato Croquettes

Why it works: Sweet potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,015 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Sweet Potato Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. In a pan, combine the mashed sweet potatoes, egg yolks, salt, and pepper.

  2. Cook over medium heat, stirring until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the pan.

  3. Let the mixture cool, then form it into small croquettes.

Coat and fry

  1. Brush each croquette with beaten egg and roll in bread crumbs.

  2. Fry in hot oil 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.

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. Sweet potato + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,015 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Sweet potato + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together67 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

  5. Sweet potato + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together843 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet potatoes
Provide the starchy, moist base that holds the croquettes together and gives them a soft interior.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the mixture as it cooks and sets.
Beaten egg
Acts as a glue so the bread crumbs stick to the croquettes and brown during frying.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Cooking the mixture until it pulls away from the pan. Stirring over medium heat drives off excess moisture and lets the starch and egg yolks set, so the mixture is firm enough to shape. If it stays wet, the croquettes will be soft and may fall apart in the hot oil.

Swap the sweet potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Sweet potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, 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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