Skip to main content
Main

Veal Croquettes with Asparagus

Veal croquettes are pan‑fried patties of minced veal coated in breadcrumbs, served with asparagus.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Veal Croquettes with Asparagus

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the croquettes

  1. In a bowl, combine minced veal, breadcrumbs, and season with salt and pepper.

  2. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and mix in the milk.

  3. Form the veal mixture into small patties.

  4. Dip each patty into the egg mixture, then coat with breadcrumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat butter in a skillet over medium heat and fry the patties until golden brown.

  2. Serve hot with steamed asparagus.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + asparagustop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,968 recipes

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

  3. Milk + asparagustop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together650 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Egg + asparagustop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,338 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the main body of the croquettes, giving them savory flavour and a firm, meaty texture.
Breadcrumbs
Bind the mixture and form a crisp coating that browns when fried.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and coating together, helping the crumbs stick to each patty.
Milk
Adds moisture to the egg mixture, keeping the coating tender rather than dry.
Butter
Adds fat to the skillet, promoting browning and a rich flavour on the patties.

The step that matters

Frying the patties until golden brown. The patties are already cooked veal, so the frying mainly browns the coating. Medium heat lets the crumb coating brown evenly without burning before the centre warms through.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Asparagusthe original
  4. Leekfits about as well

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

You might also like

Asparagus SoupAsparagus Soup179 recipesAsparagus SaladAsparagus Salad77 recipesVeal PattiesVeal Patties50 recipesCream of AsparagusCream of Asparagus38 recipes