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Meat Croquettes

A fried patty of cooked meat mixed with a white sauce, seasoned and coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Meat Croquettes

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Meat Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Scald the milk.

  2. Cook butter and flour together until smooth and frothy.

  3. Gradually add milk to make a stiff white sauce.

  4. Mix the sauce with the chopped meat, making the mixture a little thinner than can be handled.

  5. Add seasoning and mix thoroughly.

  6. Spread the mixture on a plate and set aside to cool (can be made the day before).

Shape and coat

  1. Beat the eggs until smooth and sprinkle sifted crumbs on a clean surface.

  2. Take a heaping tablespoon of the mixture, roll it in crumbs, and flatten the ends.

  3. Dip the croquette in the beaten egg, ensuring it is fully coated.

  4. Remove the croquette from the egg with a wide knife and roll it in crumbs again, flattening the ends.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry in hot lard until browned, about 1 minute, and dry on brown paper.

  2. Serve immediately.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 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. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Cooked meat
Provides the main body and savoury flavour of the croquette filling.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a stiff sauce that holds the filling together.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the flour cook into a smooth roux.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the white sauce, setting firm as it cools.
Eggs
Bind the crumbs to the filling and help the coating set during frying.
Dried bread crumbs
Form the crisp outer coating that browns in the hot fat.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture until it can be handled. The filling must be chilled so it firms up. If it is still warm or too thin, the croquettes lose their shape and can break apart when coated and fried.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, milk, flour, butter, celery, onion, parsley):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, milk, flour, butter, celery, onion, parsley. 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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