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Dessert

Hominy Croquettes

Hominy croquettes are fried balls made from boiled hominy, butter, milk, sugar, egg, and cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Hominy Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine the cold, boiled hominy and melted butter.

  2. Gradually add the rich milk while stirring until you achieve a soft paste.

  3. Mix in the sugar and the well-beaten egg.

  4. Roll the mixture into oval balls.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each ball into beaten egg, then coat with cracker crumbs.

  2. Fry the croquettes 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.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Hominy
Forms the bulk of the croquettes and gives them their substance and body.
Egg
Binds the paste so it holds its shape, and helps the coating stick.
Rich milk
Moistens the hominy into a soft paste that stays tender when cooked.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender interior.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, browned outer crust during frying.

The step that matters

Fry in hot lard until golden brown. Fat that is hot enough seals the coating quickly, so the outside browns and crisps before the soft interior overheats or absorbs grease. Lard that is too cool soaks into the croquettes and makes them heavy and greasy.

“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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