Skip to main content
Dessert

Croquettes of Paris

A sweet, vanilla-flavored pastry made by baking a batter of vanilla, sugar, flour, and whipped egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Vanilla and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Croquettes of Paris

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Pound the vanilla with 2 ounces of sugar and sift through a fine sieve, then mix with 7 ounces of sugar and ½ pound of fine sifted flour.

  2. Stir in the whipped egg whites and mix well for a few minutes.

Prepare the plates

  1. Heat two large copper baking plates and lightly rub them with virgin wax.

  2. Spoon the mixture onto the plates, spacing them ¾ inch apart.

Rest and bake

  1. Place the plates in a cool oven or stove, cover, and add embers on top to keep them away from the fire overnight.

  2. The next morning, bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 15-20 minutes until they are a clear reddish color.

  3. Remove from the plates while 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.

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. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Vanilla + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Vanilla and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the croquettes set crisp as they dry and bake.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the croquettes together after baking.
Egg whites
Whipped to foam, they lighten the mixture and help it rise and set.

The step that matters

Overnight rest in a cool oven. The mixture must stay cool and dry-set rather than cooking too quickly; keeping the heat gentle lets the batter firm before the final bake, which helps the pieces hold their shape.

Swap the vanilla

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillathe original
  3. Lemonfits less well
  4. Figfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, 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.

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes