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Bean Croquettes

Bean croquettes are fried balls made from boiled beans mixed with molasses, vinegar, butter, salt, cayenne, and egg, coated in breadcrumbs.

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 bean mixture

  1. Boil the beans as directed in the preceding recipe.

  2. Drain the beans and press them through a colander.

  3. Add molasses, vinegar, butter, salt, and cayenne to the beans and mix well.

  4. Let the mixture cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Once cool, form the mixture into small balls.

  2. Dip each ball first in beaten egg, then in bread crumbs.

  3. Fry the croquettes in 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 soup beans
Provide the starchy, bulky base that holds the croquettes together.
Egg
Binds the coating so the bread crumbs stick and the croquettes hold their shape.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer layer when fried.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and a deep, dark color to the bean mixture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer interior texture.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before shaping. Warm bean mixture is soft and sticky, so it is hard to form into balls and may fall apart. Cooling lets it firm up enough to hold its shape through breading and frying.

Swap the beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, vinegar, butter, 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 molasses, vinegar, butter, 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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