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Apple Croquettes

A fried apple mixture formed into cylinders, coated in breadcrumbs and dusted with powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Apple Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the apple mixture

  1. Peel, core, and quarter the apples, then slice them thinly.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the apples, butter, sugar, lemon rind, and cinnamon.

  3. Cover and cook over medium heat until the apples are tender, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.

  4. Once tender, mix in the potato flour dissolved in a little water, then stir in the beaten egg and remove from heat.

  5. Let the mixture cool, then form it into cylinders.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each cylinder in egg, then coat with bread crumbs.

  2. Fry in boiling oil until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Dust with powdered sugar and serve hot, with or without cream.

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. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cinnamon + potatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Cooking apples
Provide the bulk and flavor that cook down into a soft, sweet filling.
Potato flour
Thickens the cooked apples so the mixture holds its cylinder shape.
Egg
Binds the mixture and forms a coating that helps the bread crumbs stick.
Dried bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the apples caramelize slightly while cooking.

The step that matters

Cooling the apple mixture before shaping. Warm starch-thickened apples are soft and sticky, so cooling lets the starch set and the cylinders hold their shape through the egg coating and frying.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, butter, sugar, lemon, cinnamon, flour, egg):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, butter, sugar, lemon, cinnamon, flour, 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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