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Meat Croquettes

Small fried cakes made from finely chopped meat, breadcrumbs, eggs, butter, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Meat 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 ↓

Meat Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix the chopped meat, bread crumbs, eggs, butter, pepper, salt, and cream together.

  2. Form the mixture into cakes.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each cake into beaten egg, then roll in cracker crumbs.

  2. Fry the cakes in hot lard 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Veal + breadtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,056 recipes

    Shared aroma: cis-3-hexenol (green, grassy).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture so the cakes hold their shape, and add richness to the coating.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the filling body so it holds together.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, keeping the cooked centre moist.
Cold chopped meat
Provides the main filling, giving savoury flavour and substance.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, browned outer crust during frying.

The step that matters

Fry the cakes in hot lard until golden brown. If the lard is not hot enough, the coated cakes absorb grease and turn soggy before the crust sets. Hot fat seals the coating quickly, producing a crisp exterior and keeping the inside moist.

“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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