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Veal Croquettes with String Beans

Veal croquettes served with seasoned string beans.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Veal Croquettes with String Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the croquettes

  1. Chop the cold roast veal and sweetbreads, if using.

  2. Moisten the mixture with a little soup or gravy.

  3. Add the egg yolks, parsley, salt, and cayenne pepper; mix well.

  4. Roll the mixture into cone shapes.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each cone in beaten egg, then roll in bread crumbs.

  2. Dip again in beaten egg and roll in bread crumbs once more.

  3. Fry the croquettes in hot fat until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Arrange the croquettes on a dish with the small ends upright.

  2. Surround with a border of cooked and seasoned string beans.

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.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + beanstop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,376 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Pepper + beanstop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,733 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Bread + beanstop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together332 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold roast veal
Forms the bulk of the croquette and gives them their meaty body.
Egg yolks
Bind the chopped meat so the cones hold their shape while frying.
Beaten egg
Acts as a sticky layer so the bread crumbs adhere to the outside.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Fry the croquettes in hot fat until golden brown. The fat must be hot enough to brown the crumb coating quickly. If it is too cool, the croquettes absorb excess fat, turn greasy, and can fall apart before the crust sets.

Swap the beans

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

  1. Walnutfits about as well
  2. Peasfits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, egg, parsley, pepper, 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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