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Veal Croquettes

A dish of veal and rice formed into croquettes, coated in egg and breadcrumbs, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Veal Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Heat the veal and rice together in a pan.

  2. Add the egg, cream, parsley, onion juice, salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and mix well.

  3. Turn the mixture onto a dish to cool.

Shape and coat

  1. Once cold, form the mixture into croquettes.

  2. Roll each croquette in beaten egg, then in bread crumbs.

Fry

  1. Fry in boiling fat 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.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Rice + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides the main body and savory flavor of the croquettes.
Cold boiled rice
Adds bulk and a soft body that helps the mixture hold together.
Egg
Binds the mixture so it holds its shape when formed and fried.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the interior tender.
Bread crumbs (in the method)
Forms a crisp, golden outer crust during frying.

The step that matters

Chill the mixture before shaping. The mixture must be fully cold so it firms up enough to form into croquettes without falling apart when it meets the hot fat.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, rice, egg, cream, parsley, pepper, nutmeg):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, rice, egg, cream, parsley, pepper, nutmeg. 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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