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Meat and Potato Croquettes

A fried dish of meat and mashed potato formed into shapes and coated in crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Meat and Potato Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and sauté the minced onion until it simmers.

  2. Add the flour and stir until smooth and frothy.

  3. Gradually add the milk, stirring continuously until it boils.

Shape and coat

  1. Mix in the chopped cold meat and hot mashed potato thoroughly, then cool on a plate.

  2. Shape the mixture into cones or rolls.

  3. Dip each piece in the beaten egg, then coat with cracker crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry in boiling oil until golden brown, then drain on paper and serve immediately.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

  3. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cold meat
Provides the savory bulk and flavor that forms the body of the croquette.
Mashed potato
Adds body and softness, helping the mixture hold together when shaped.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a sauce that binds the meat and potato together.
Milk
Makes the flour-based sauce creamy, adding moisture to the mixture.
Beaten egg
Binds the shaped pieces and helps the cracker crumbs adhere as a coating.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns during frying.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture before shaping. If the mixture is still hot and loose, it will not hold its shape and may split or slump in the oil. Cooling it firms the starch and fat so the cones or rolls keep their form while frying.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, milk, pepper, meat, potato, egg):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, pepper, meat, potato, 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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