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Sweet Potato Croquettes

A fried croquette made from mashed sweet potatoes, milk, butter, eggs, and bread crumbs.

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

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Sweet Potato Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Mash the boiled sweet potatoes until smooth and light.

  2. Beat in the hot milk, salt, and butter until well combined.

  3. Beat one egg until light and mix it into the potato mixture.

  4. Shape the mixture into croquettes.

Coat and fry

  1. Beat the second egg in a plate and coat the croquettes with it.

  2. Roll the croquettes in bread crumbs.

  3. Fry in hot fat until they turn a rich brown.

  4. Serve immediately.

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

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

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

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

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

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

Eggs
Bind the potato mixture and form a coating that helps crumbs stick.
Boiled sweet potatoes
Form the soft, starchy body of the croquettes.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, smoother texture.
Hot milk
Adds moisture so the mixture is smooth and easy to shape.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Fry in hot fat until a rich brown. The fat must be hot enough to brown the crumb coating quickly. If it is too cool, the croquettes absorb excess oil and turn greasy before the crust forms.

Swap the sweet potato

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Sweet potatothe original

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