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 ↓
Croquettes of Veal
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the filling
Cut the roasted veal into very small dice or mince it into fine shreds.
Add the veal to an equal amount of finely cut mushrooms, truffles, or red tongue.
Reduce enough sauce by boiling until it thickens. Mix the reduced sauce with the veal.
Season the mixture with pepper and grated nutmeg.
Spread the mixture on a dish about 1 inch thick. Smooth the spread mixture.
Cover the mixture with buttered paper. Cool the mixture in the refrigerator.
Shape and bread
Divide the cooled mixture into about 24 pieces.
Shape each piece into corks, balls, or pears.
Roll each shaped piece in bread crumbs. Dip each piece in beaten egg. Roll each egg-dipped piece in bread crumbs again.
Place the breaded pieces on a dish until ready to fry.
Fry and serve
Heat the lard until hot. Fry the croquettes until golden.
Drain the fried croquettes on a napkin.
Garnish with fried parsley and serve immediately.
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.
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,062 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together13,015 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,536 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Roasted veal
- Forms the main body of the croquette filling.
- Mushrooms, truffles, or red tongue
- Adds moisture and savory flavor to the veal filling.
- Allemande, bechamel, veloute, or supreme sauce
- Binds the filling so it holds its shape when cooled and fried.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden crust during frying.
- Beaten egg
- Helps the bread crumbs adhere to the shaped pieces.
The step that matters
Cool the filling thoroughly before shaping. A cold, firm filling holds its shape when rolled and fried. If it is still warm or soft, the pieces can slump or burst in the hot lard.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, mushroom, sauce, pepper, bread, egg, parsley):
- Marjoramfits better
- Thymefits about as well
- Capersfits about as well
- Nutmegthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, mushroom, sauce, pepper, bread, egg, parsley. 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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