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Celery Croquettes

Celery croquettes are fried celery pieces coated in beaten eggs and breadcrumbs, served hot with sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Celery Croquettes

Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Celery Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the celery and remove the coarse outer stalks.

  2. Steam the celery until slightly tender.

  3. Cut the celery into 2-inch pieces.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each piece into the beaten eggs, then coat with breadcrumbs.

  2. Fry in boiling butter, vegetable butter, or olive oil until golden brown.

  3. Dust with pepper and coarse sea salt, and serve hot with white or tomato sauce.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  4. Celery + buttertop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

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

Egg and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 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

Celery
Forms the main body of the croquettes and provides their mild, vegetal flavour.
Eggs
Bind the breadcrumbs to the celery and set during frying to hold the coating together.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns when fried.

The step that matters

Coat and fry. The egg must fully cover each piece before the breadcrumbs go on, and the fat must be hot when the pieces go in. Hot fat sets the egg and crumbs quickly and browns the coating, while cold fat lets the coating soak up oil and fall apart.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, 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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