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Ham Croquettes

Ham croquettes are small, fried rolls made from chopped ham, eggs, bread, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Ham Croquettes

Why it works: Sage and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Ham Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, mix the chopped ham, eggs, salt, sage, pepper, and soaked bread until well combined.

  2. Wet your hands with cold water and shape the mixture into small cork-shaped rolls or croquettes.

  3. Coat the croquettes in seasoned flour.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat oil in a frying kettle until smoking hot.

  2. Fry the croquettes until golden brown, then remove with a skimmer.

  3. Drain on brown paper and serve hot.

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. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Sage + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Sage + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked ham
Provides the main savoury flavour and bulk of the filling.
Raw eggs
Bind the filling and set when heated, holding the croquettes together.
Stale bread
Adds moisture and body to the filling, keeping the croquettes tender inside.
Flour
Forms a dry coating that helps the outside brown and crisp when fried.

The step that matters

Frying in smoking-hot oil. If the oil is not hot enough, the croquettes absorb grease and turn heavy, and the coating may not brown before the filling heats through. Hot oil quickly sets the coating and browns the outside.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, egg, pepper, bread, 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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