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Potato Croquettes

A fried potato roll made with grated bread, butter, cream, eggs, and spices.

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

Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Potato Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the potato mixture

  1. Mix the butter with the warm potatoes, using the cream to help pass the potatoes through the colander.

  2. Add the salt, pepper, nutmeg, and one beaten egg. Mix thoroughly.

  3. Shape the mixture into rolls about 4 inches long and 1½ inches thick, or make them round and flatten them.

Coat and fry

  1. Beat the second egg on a plate.

  2. Prepare the grated bread.

  3. Roll the croquettes first in the egg, then in the bread.

  4. Fry in hot lard until light brown.

  5. Drain on brown paper.

  6. Serve on a napkin.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the soft, starchy body that holds the croquettes together.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the potato mixture.
Cream
Adds moisture, helping the potatoes pass through the colander and stay soft.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and form a coating that helps the bread crumbs stick.
Grated bread
Forms a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Frying in hot lard until light brown. If the lard is not hot enough, the croquettes absorb fat and turn greasy; if too hot, the outside browns before the centre heats. Steady heat gives an even golden crust.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, cream, nutmeg, egg, pepper. 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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