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Bean Croquettes

Bean croquettes made from soaked navy beans, olive oil, salt, egg, and bread crumbs, baked and served with tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Bean Croquettes

Why it works: Beans and olive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,470 recipes. Both carry trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Bean Croquettes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the beans

  1. Cover the beans with water and soak overnight.

  2. Drain and cook the beans until tender.

  3. Drain again and press through a colander.

  4. Add salt and olive oil, then mix thoroughly.

Shape and coat

  1. Roll the mixture into croquettes.

  2. Dip each croquette into the beaten egg.

  3. Roll in bread crumbs and bake at 350°F (175°C).

Serve

  1. Serve with tomato sauce.

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. Beans + olivetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,470 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Olive + breadtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,091 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Olive + eggtop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,340 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

Navy beans
Form the bulk of the croquettes, and their starch gives the mixture body once mashed.
Olive oil
Adds fat for a softer, moister interior and richer flavour.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the croquettes hold their shape, and its coating helps the crumbs stick.
Bread crumbs
Form a coating that browns and crisps in the oven.

The step that matters

Drain again and press through a colander. Removing excess water and pressing the beans smooth keeps the mixture firm enough to shape. Wet, loose bean paste makes croquettes that slump and fall apart in the oven.

Swap the beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, bread, egg):

  1. Peasfits better
  2. Pecansfits about as well
  3. Walnutfits about as well
  4. Beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, bread, egg. 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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