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Veal Croquettes

Veal croquettes are small, fried meatballs made from minced veal, ham, onions, and seasonings, coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Veal Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a chopping bowl, mince the cold veal, cold ham, and onions.

  2. Add mace, parsley, pepper, and salt to the mixture.

  3. Bring the milk or cream to a boil, then stir in the cold butter and the meat mixture.

  4. Beat the eggs and mix with corn-starch or flour, then add to the mixture and cook for 10 minutes, stirring carefully.

  5. Remove from heat and spread the mixture on a platter to cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Once cooled, roll into balls and flatten each one.

  2. Dip the croquettes in beaten egg and then in breadcrumbs.

  3. Fry 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Mace + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,268 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the main meaty body and bulk of the croquette filling.
Milk or cream
Makes a thick, creamy binder that holds the minced filling together.
Eggs
Bind the filling and set when cooked, helping the croquettes hold their shape.
Corn-starch or flour
Thickens the mixture so it firms up enough to shape and coat.
Onions
Add savoury flavour and aroma to the filling.

The step that matters

Cooking the filling before shaping. The mixture must be cooked and then cooled until firm; if it is too soft, the croquettes will not hold their shape and may break apart in the hot lard.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, onion, parsley, pepper, milk, butter. 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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