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 ↓
Sweet Potato Croquettes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mixture
Beat the egg until light.
Mix the egg with the mashed sweet potatoes and add salt, parsley, butter, and pepper.
Mix well and let cool.
Shape and coat
Form the mixture into cylinders.
Roll each cylinder in egg and then in bread crumbs.
Fry
Fry in boiling fat until golden brown.
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.
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Parsley + walnuttop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together865 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Sweet potato + walnuttop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together70 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Sweet potato + parsleytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together180 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
- Sweet potatoes
- Provide the bulk and soft, moist body of the croquette filling.
- Egg
- Binds the mixture so the cylinders hold their shape, and helps the coating adhere.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture to the filling and softens its texture.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, browned outer crust when fried.
The step that matters
Let the mixture cool before shaping. Warm filling is soft and sticky, so it can slump or tear when shaped and coated. Cooling lets the starch and fat firm up so the cylinders hold their form through frying.
Swap the sweet potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, parsley, butter, walnut, pepper, bread):
- Shallotfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Chivefits better
- Sweet potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, parsley, butter, walnut, pepper, bread. 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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