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Meat Croquettes

A fried patty made from chopped meat, bread crumbs, milk, egg yolk, butter, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Meat Croquettes

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Meat Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg yolk.

  2. Add the hot milk, melted butter, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, and chopped meat. Mix until well combined.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into small, flat cakes.

  2. Fry the cakes in hot butter 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.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

  5. Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 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

Chopped meat
Forms the main filling and gives the croquettes their savory flavor.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the hot milk and bind with the egg, giving the mixture body so it holds its shape.
Hot milk
Moistens the crumbs and keeps the interior tender and creamy.
Egg yolk
Binds the mixture together and adds richness when it sets.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the outside brown when frying.

The step that matters

Fry the cakes in hot butter until golden brown. The cakes are fragile and can break apart or absorb too much fat if the butter is not hot enough or they are moved too early. Frying over steady heat sets the crust and browns it through surface reactions, while the binding egg and crumbs hold the shape.

“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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