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Shrimp ' Croquettes

Shrimp croquettes are fried balls of shrimp, rice, tomatoes, eggs, and spices coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,065 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Shrimp ' Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Chop the shrimp, rice, tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, butter, salt, and cayenne pepper.

  2. Add the cream or milk and mix well to form a mixture.

  3. Shape the mixture into croquettes.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each croquette in bread crumbs, then in the raw eggs, and again in bread crumbs.

  2. Fry the croquettes in very hot lard 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.

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. Rice + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimp
Provides the main filling and flavor of the croquettes.
Raw eggs
Bind the coating so the bread crumbs stick and form a crust.
Hard boiled eggs
Add body to the filling and help hold the shaped croquettes together.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture to the filling so it is soft and easy to shape.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the filling.
Boiled rice
Adds bulk and softness to the filling.

The step that matters

Fry in very hot lard until golden brown. Frying in very hot fat quickly sets the crumb coating into a crisp crust before the soft filling can break apart or absorb excess grease. Too cool a pan lets the croquettes soak up fat and fall apart.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shrimp, rice, butter, pepper, egg, cream, bread):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, rice, butter, pepper, egg, cream, 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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