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Croquettes of Peas

A fried pea-based croquette made with milk, butter, flour, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Croquettes of Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pea base

  1. Heat the milk in a double boiler until boiling.

  2. Rub together the butter and flour until well combined.

  3. Add the butter and flour mixture to the boiling milk and stir until thick.

  4. Stir in the salt, white pepper, and canned peas, mixing thoroughly.

  5. Spread the mixture on a platter and let it cool until firm.

Shape and coat

  1. Mold the mixture into cylinder-shaped croquettes.

  2. Roll the croquettes in fine bread crumbs.

  3. Coat the croquettes with beaten egg.

  4. Roll the croquettes again in bread crumbs.

Fry

  1. Fry the croquettes in smoking hot fat 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. Butter + breadtop 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. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Peas + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the liquid base that thickens into a smooth, sauce-like binder.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and combines with flour to build the thick base.
Flour
Thickens the boiling milk so the mixture holds its shape when cooled.
Canned peas
Provides the main flavor and bulk of the croquette filling.
Egg
Binds the outer bread crumb coating so it adheres during frying.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool until firm before shaping. A warm, soft base is too loose to hold its cylinder shape and can break apart. Cooling lets the starch set so the croquettes keep their form through coating and frying.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, flour, peas, bread, 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.

More pea croquettes recipes

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