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Bean Croquettes

Bean croquettes are small balls of mashed white beans mixed with butter, vinegar, molasses, salt, and pepper, coated in breadcrumbs and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Bean Croquettes

Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Bean Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Boil the beans until tender, then drain.

  2. Press the beans through a colander.

  3. Mix in butter, vinegar, molasses, salt, and pepper.

  4. Let the mixture cool completely.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into small balls.

  2. Dip each ball in egg, then coat with bread crumbs.

  3. Fry in deep hot oil 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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,733 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  4. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Beans + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together332 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

White beans
Form the bulk of the croquettes and give them their soft, starchy interior.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the bean mixture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness of the molasses.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, depth, and a dark color to the mixture.
Egg
Binds the coating so the bread crumbs stick to each ball.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool completely. The mixture is soft and moist after pressing and mixing. Cooling it firms the starches and proteins so the balls hold their shape, and keeps them from falling apart or absorbing excess oil when they hit the hot frying oil.

Swap the beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, vinegar, molasses, pepper, egg, bread):

  1. Peasfits about as well
  2. Beansthe original
  3. Walnutfits about as well
  4. Lima beansfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, vinegar, molasses, pepper, egg, 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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