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Dessert

Apple Croquettes

Apple croquettes are fried apple cylinders coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 filling

  1. Slice the apples thinly.

  2. Place the sliced apples in a saucepan with butter, sugar, lemon rind, and cinnamon. Cover the saucepan tightly.

  3. Cook over medium heat until the apples are tender, ensuring they do not burn.

  4. Add potato flour mixed with a little water and stir in the beaten egg. Remove from heat.

  5. Let the mixture cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the cooled mixture into cylinders.

  2. Dip each cylinder in beaten egg, then in dried bread crumbs.

  3. Fry in boiling oil until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Sift powdered sugar over the croquettes.

  2. 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 main body of the filling, softening into a soft purée when cooked.
Potato flour
Thickens the cooked apple mixture so it holds its shape for forming.
Egg
Binds the filling and, as a coating, helps the bread crumbs stick and brown.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the cooked apples.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps flavour the cooked apples.

The step that matters

Cook the apples covered over medium heat without burning. Covering the pan traps steam so the apples soften evenly, and gentle heat with stirring prevents scorching on the bottom. The cooled mixture must be thick enough to hold its shape when formed.

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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