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Veal, Croquettes of

Veal croquettes are small fried balls made from minced veal mixed with ham or bacon, seasoned, thickened, chilled, coated, and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Veal, Croquettes of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Remove the skin, gristle, and sinew from the veal and mince it finely.

  2. Mix the minced veal with the ham, tongue, or bacon. Season with salt, white pepper, and grated nutmeg.

  3. In a saucepan, stir the mixture over gentle heat with butter rolled in flour, cream, and strong stock for 15 minutes.

  4. Spread the mixture on a dish to a smooth layer about 1 inch thick and let it cool until stiff.

Shape and coat

  1. Form the mixture into small balls.

  2. Coat the croquettes in egg and bread crumbs, then refrigerate for 1 hour.

  3. Coat them in egg and bread crumbs again.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry in boiling oil until browned all over, then drain thoroughly.

  2. Serve on a hot napkin and garnish 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.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. White pepper + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Cold cooked veal
Forms the bulk of the croquette and gives its main meaty flavor and body.
Ham, tongue, or bacon
Adds savory, salty flavor and richness to the minced meat.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and with the flour forms a base that thickens the mixture.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the butter and cream so the filling becomes stiff enough to shape.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the filling tender rather than dry.
Egg
Binds the breading so the bread crumbs stick and form a crisp coating.

The step that matters

Let the filling cool until stiff before shaping. A warm, soft mixture cannot hold its shape and may tear or slump. Cooling lets the starch and fats firm up so the balls stay intact through breading and frying.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, nutmeg, butter, flour, cream, egg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, nutmeg, butter, flour, cream, 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.

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