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Potato Croquettes

A fried snack of mashed potatoes shaped into rolls, coated in egg and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Potato Croquettes

Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Potato Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. In a bowl, combine cold mashed potatoes, melted butter, salt, and pepper.

  2. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  3. Fold the beaten egg whites into the potato mixture.

Shape and coat

  1. Shape the mixture into small rolls.

  2. Dip each roll in beaten egg yolks.

  3. Roll each roll in flour.

Fry

  1. Fry the rolls in hot oil 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.

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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 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

Mashed potatoes
Provides the bulk and moisture that hold the croquette together.
Eggs
Beaten whites trap air for lightness, and yolks help the flour coating adhere.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender interior.
Flour
Forms a dry coating that helps the outside brown when fried.

The step that matters

Fold the beaten egg whites into the potato mixture. Folding gently keeps the air in the beaten whites. Stirring or deflating them makes the rolls dense rather than light.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, pepper, flour. 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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