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Beef Croquettes

Beef croquettes are fried meatballs made from minced dressed beef, salt, stiff white sauce, eggs, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Beef Croquettes

Why it works: Beef and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,032 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Beef Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Finely mince the dressed beef and season it with coarse sea salt.

  2. Moisten the beef with stiff white sauce until it holds together.

  3. Spread the mixture on a dish and let it firm up.

  4. Once firm, divide it into parts and shape them into corks or balls.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each piece twice in beaten eggs and then in bread crumbs.

  2. Place them in a wire basket and fry in hot fat until golden brown, about 10 minutes.

  3. Drain the croquettes and serve on a napkin, garnished with parsley.

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 + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

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

  4. Beef + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,866 recipes

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

  5. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 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

Dressed beef
Forms the main body of the croquette and gives it its meaty flavor and bulk.
Stiff white sauce
Adds moisture and binding so the minced beef holds together when shaped.
Eggs
Bind the coating so the bread crumbs adhere and form a crisp shell.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust during frying.

The step that matters

Let the mixture firm up before shaping. The white sauce sets as it cools, so the mixture must be fully firm before shaping. Shaping it warm leaves it soft and likely to break apart in the hot fat.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, sauce, egg, bread):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, sauce, 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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