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Westphalia Croquettes

Fried croquettes made with mashed potatoes, ham, and sweet cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Westphalia Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. In a bowl, beat the mashed potatoes and sweet cream together.

  2. Add the chopped ham, butter, and pepper; mix well.

  3. Mould the mixture into round balls.

Coat and fry

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

  2. Fry the croquettes in hot lard until golden brown.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mashed potatoes
Form the bulk of the croquette and give a soft, moist interior.
Sweet cream
Adds moisture and richness, helping the potato mixture bind and stay tender.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender texture inside.
Beaten egg
Binds the coating so the bread crumbs stick and form a crisp shell.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

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

Swap the potato

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

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

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