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Ham Croquettes

Ham croquettes are fried balls of grated ham, mashed potatoes, eggs, and spices coated in breadcrumbs.

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

Ham Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make and shape the mixture

  1. Mix the grated ham, mashed potatoes, chopped hard-boiled eggs, butter, pepper, and nutmeg together.

  2. Shape the mixture into croquettes.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each croquette quickly in the beaten egg, then coat with bread crumbs.

  2. Fry in boiling fat until nicely browned.

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

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

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

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

  4. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

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

  5. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Grated ham
Provides the main savoury flavour and bulk of the filling.
Mashed potatoes
Binds the filling and gives it a soft, moist texture.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add body and help hold the mixture together when shaped.
Beaten egg
Forms a coating that helps the bread crumbs adhere.
Bread crumbs
Create a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Dip each croquette quickly in the beaten egg. A quick dip leaves a thin, even egg layer that holds the crumbs. Prolonged soaking makes the coating soggy and can loosen it in the hot fat, so the crumbs may fall off during frying.

Swap the potato

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

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

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