Skip to main content
Main

Veal Croquettes

Veal croquettes are small rolls of seasoned veal mixed with cream sauce, beaten egg, and parsley, coated in breadcrumbs and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Veal Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped veal with salt, pepper, cayenne, onion juice, celery salt, nutmeg, and parsley.

  2. Moisten the mixture with cream sauce and add the beaten egg. Mix well.

  3. Shape the mixture into rolls.

Coat and fry

  1. Roll each croquette in bread crumbs, then dip in beaten egg, and roll in crumbs again.

  2. Heat oil in a pan until smoking hot and fry the croquettes until golden brown.

  3. Drain on paper towels.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 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

Veal
Forms the main body of the croquette and gives it its savory meaty flavor.
Cream sauce
Moistens the mixture so the croquettes stay tender rather than dry.
Egg
Binds the mixture together and, in the coating, sets to form a crisp shell.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Frying in smoking-hot oil. If the oil is not hot enough, the croquettes absorb excess oil and turn greasy before the crumb coating browns. Very hot oil sets the egg and crumb crust quickly, keeping the inside moist and the coating crisp.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper, celery, nutmeg, parsley, cream, sauce):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, celery, nutmeg, parsley, cream, sauce. 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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipes