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Ham Croquettes

Ham croquettes are fried balls of ham, rice, and seasonings coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Ham Croquettes

Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Ham Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a saucepan, brown the butter and flour over medium heat.

  2. Add the beef stock and stir until thick and smooth.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, onion juice, and mushroom catsup.

  4. Stir in the boiled rice and chopped ham, then mix well.

  5. Set the mixture aside to cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape the cooled mixture into croquettes.

  2. Dip each croquette in the beaten egg, then roll in breadcrumbs.

  3. Fry in hot oil until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Serve with tomato sauce or a good brown sauce.

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. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Mushroom + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,515 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the butter and stock into a binding paste that holds the croquettes together.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and browns with the flour to give a nutty flavour.
Beef stock
Supplies the liquid that cooks the flour into a thick, smooth base.
Boiled rice
Adds bulk and body, helping the mixture hold its shape when cooled.
Egg
Coats the shaped croquettes so the breadcrumbs adhere and form a crust.
Ham
Provides the main savoury, meaty flavour of the filling.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture fully before shaping. A warm, loose mixture is soft and sticky, so croquettes can break or collapse in the hot oil. Cooling lets the starch set so the shapes hold together during frying.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, beef, pepper, mushroom, rice, ham):

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, beef, pepper, mushroom, rice, ham. 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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