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Bean Croquettes

Bean croquettes are fried balls made from mashed white beans mixed with molasses, vinegar, butter, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Bean Croquettes

Why it works: Butter and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Bean Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Wash the beans and soak them overnight.

  2. In the morning, drain the beans, cover with cold water, and boil for one hour.

  3. Drain again and mash the beans using an egg beater until fine.

  4. Press the mashed beans through a colander and set aside to cool.

Form and fry

  1. Mix in molasses, vinegar, butter, salt, and white pepper thoroughly.

  2. Form the mixture into balls, dip in beaten egg, and roll in cracker dust.

  3. Fry the croquettes in hot drippings 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.

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. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Beans + buttertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,799 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Beans + vinegartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,347 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  4. Vinegar + white peppertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. White pepper + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,312 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

White beans
Provide the bulk and starchy body that holds the croquettes together once mashed.
Egg
Binds the coating so the cracker dust adheres and forms a crust.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and deep color to the mixture and helps the exterior brown.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender interior.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness of the molasses.

The step that matters

Press the mashed beans through a colander. Pressing removes lumps and skins so the mixture is smooth and binds evenly; coarse mash can crumble when shaped and fried.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, molasses, vinegar, butter, egg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, molasses, vinegar, butter, 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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