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Croquettes, Jackson Style

A fried potato croquette made with butter, powdered sugar, cream, macaroons, egg yolks, vanilla, and salt, dusted with powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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, Jackson Style

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potato base

  1. Bake the potatoes in the oven until tender, then cut them in half and scoop out the insides.

  2. Press the potato pulp through a fine sieve and weigh out 24 ounces.

  3. In a pan, combine the potato pulp, butter, powdered sugar, cream, powdered macaroons, egg yolks, vanilla, and salt.

  4. Stir continuously over heat until the mixture boils and thickens, then set aside to cool.

Shape and coat

  1. Shape the mixture into croquettes.

  2. Dip the croquettes in beaten eggs.

  3. Coat the croquettes with bread crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the croquettes in hot lard until golden brown.

  2. Dust the fried croquettes with powdered sugar.

  3. Serve the croquettes on a folded napkin.

  4. Serve with apricot sauce on the side.

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

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

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Potatoes
Provide the starchy bulk that gives the croquettes their soft, tender interior.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind and set the mixture as it thickens.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender texture.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the mixture.
Powdered macaroons
Add almond aroma and body to the filling.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the filling and gives the dusted finish its sweetness.

The step that matters

Stirring over heat until thickened. The mixture must be stirred constantly so the egg yolks cook evenly and thicken without scorching or curdling. Once cooled, a properly set base holds its shape when coated and fried.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, cream, egg, vanilla, bread):

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Arrowrootfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, cream, egg, vanilla, 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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