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Potato Croquettes

A fried potato roll coated in cracker dust and egg.

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

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Potato Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mash the boiled potatoes with hot milk, melted butter, and salt until creamy.

  2. Form the mixture into egg-shaped rolls.

  3. Dip the rolls in cracker dust, then in the beaten egg.

Cook

  1. Fry in deep hot lard until golden brown, testing the heat with a small piece of bread first.

  2. Alternatively, brown the croquettes in a spoonful of butter.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 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

Boiled potatoes
Provide the starchy base that mashes into a creamy, cohesive mixture to shape.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the mashed potato, and browns the croquettes when used alternatively.
Hot milk
Adds moisture and softness, keeping the mashed potato smooth and easy to shape.
Beaten egg
Binds the cracker dust coating so it adheres and helps the crust set and brown.

The step that matters

Testing the frying heat with bread. If the lard is too cool, the croquettes absorb grease and turn heavy; if too hot, the coating browns before the centre warms. A small bread cube browning in about a minute shows the right temperature.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Chivefits less well
  4. Leekfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, 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.

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