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Ham Croquettes

Ham croquettes made with cooked ham, mashed potatoes, butter, eggs, bread crumbs, and a speck of mustard or cayenne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Ham Croquettes

Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Ham Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine ham, butter, 2 eggs, and mashed potatoes in a bowl.

  2. Let the mixture cool slightly, then shape it into croquettes.

Coat and fry

  1. Roll the croquettes in bread crumbs.

  2. Dip the croquettes in beaten egg.

  3. Roll the croquettes in bread crumbs again.

  4. Plunge the croquettes into boiling fat and cook for 2 minutes.

  5. Drain and serve.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Potato + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

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

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

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mashed potatoes
Provides the soft body that holds the croquette together and keeps the inside moist.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and, beaten, form a coating that helps the crumbs stick.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp outer crust when fried.
Ham
Adds savory, meaty flavor to the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that softens the filling and adds flavor.

The step that matters

Plunge the croquettes into boiling fat. The fat must be hot enough to crisp the crumb coating quickly. If it is too cool, the croquettes absorb oil, turn greasy, and the coating can fall off or the filling can loosen before the crust sets.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, bread, potato, 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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