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Meat Croquettes

A fried ball of finely chopped roast beef mixed with breadcrumbs, milk, and egg, coated in crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Meat Croquettes

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 ↓

Meat Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped beef, pepper, salt, bread crumbs, and milk.

  2. Flour your hands and shape the mixture into balls.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each ball into the beaten egg, then coat with pulverized crackers.

  2. Fry the croquettes in butter until golden brown.

  3. Garnish with parsley before serving.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold roast beef
Provides the main filling and savory flavor of the croquettes.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help bind the beef mixture so it holds its shape.
Beaten egg
Binds the coating so the cracker crumbs adhere to the balls.
Pulverized crackers
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.
Milk
Adds moisture to the mixture, keeping the filling tender.

The step that matters

Fry the croquettes in butter until golden brown. Frying at a steady heat browns the cracker coating while the filling warms through. Too high a heat scorches the outside before the inside heats, and too low a heat leaves the coating greasy and pale.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, bread, milk, egg, butter):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Cinnamonfits about as well
  4. Thymefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, bread, milk, egg, butter. 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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