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Potato Croquettes

Small fried balls made from mashed potatoes, eggs, parsley, and breadcrumbs.

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

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Potato Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Season the cold mashed potatoes with pepper, salt, and nutmeg.

  2. Beat in melted butter until creamy.

  3. Add beaten eggs and minced parsley, mixing well.

  4. Roll the mixture into small balls.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each ball in beaten egg, then roll in bread crumbs.

  2. Fry in hot lard 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  5. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Mashed potatoes
Form the bulk of the croquettes and give a soft, tender interior.
Eggs
Bind the mixture so the balls hold their shape, and set when cooked.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, making the potato mixture creamy.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp outer crust that browns when fried.

The step that matters

Frying in hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the coating absorbs fat and turns greasy before it browns. Hot fat sets the crumb crust quickly and keeps the interior from becoming oily.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, nutmeg, butter, egg, parsley, 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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