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Veal Croquettes

Veal croquettes are fried balls of veal mixed with milk, butter, flour, and seasonings, coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Veal Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the béchamel

  1. Scald the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Melt the butter and add the flour, stirring until smooth.

  3. Gradually stir the flour mixture into the milk and cook until thick.

  4. Season the mixture with salt, pepper, cayenne, and celery salt.

Shape the croquettes

  1. Mix in the chopped veal, onion juice, and parsley until well combined.

  2. Allow the mixture to cool, then shape it into croquettes.

  3. Dip each croquette in the beaten egg, then roll in bread crumbs.

  4. Dip again in egg and bread crumbs for a thicker coating.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the croquettes in hot oil until golden brown.

  2. Serve with tomato 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.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  5. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the thick white sauce that binds the veal.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a sauce that holds the chopped veal together.
Butter
Cooks with the flour to form a roux and adds richness to the sauce.
Chopped veal
Provides the main filling, giving the croquettes their meaty body and texture.
Beaten egg
Binds the breadcrumb coating so it adheres to the croquettes while frying.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before shaping. A warm, loose sauce cannot hold its shape. Once thick and cooled, the mixture firms up so croquettes keep their form and do not split or collapse in hot oil.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, flour, pepper, celery, veal, parsley):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, flour, pepper, celery, veal, parsley. 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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