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Another Veal Croquette

A fried veal patty coated in breadcrumbs, served with parsley garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Another Veal Croquette

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped veal, bread crumbs, mace, pepper, and salt.

  2. Add the raw egg and mix until well combined.

  3. Shape the mixture into thin pieces about three inches long.

  4. Dip each piece in egg and then in bread crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry in hot oil until golden brown.

  2. Serve on a small flat dish, garnished with parsley.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Mace + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,268 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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

Veal
Provides the meaty body that the croquette is formed from and holds its shape.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and form a crisp, golden coating when fried.
Raw egg
Binds the mixture together and helps the crumb coating adhere.

The step that matters

Frying in hot oil. If the oil is not hot enough, the croquettes absorb excess oil and turn greasy before the crumb coating browns. Hot oil sets the crust quickly, keeping the inside moist and the outside golden.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, bread, pepper, egg, parsley. 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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