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Dessert

Sweet Potato Croquettes

Sweet potato croquettes are mashed sweet potatoes mixed with seasoning, egg whites, and heavy cream, formed into patties, coated in breadcrumbs, and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Sweet Potato Croquettes

Why it works: Sweet potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,015 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Sweet Potato Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil and mash the sweet potatoes.

  2. Season with coarse sea salt, black pepper, and heavy cream.

  3. Add 1-2 egg whites and mix until creamy.

Shape and coat

  1. Shape the mixture into small patties.

  2. Dip each patty into beaten egg yolks.

  3. Roll the patties in sifted bread crumbs.

Fry

  1. Fry 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. Sweet potato + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,015 recipes

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

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Sweet potato + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together67 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Pepper and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 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

Sweet potatoes
Provide the bulk and starchy body that holds the croquette together.
Heavy cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the mashed filling soft and creamy.
Egg whites
Bind the mashed filling so the patties hold their shape.
Egg yolks
Give the coating a glossy surface that helps the crumbs stick and brown.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp outer crust that browns when fried.

The step that matters

Fry in hot oil until golden brown. If the oil is not hot enough, the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy before it crisps. Hot oil sets the crumb crust quickly, keeping the patty intact and the interior moist.

Swap the sweet potato

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

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Sweet potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, cream, egg, 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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