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Veal Croquettes

Veal croquettes are small meatballs made from finely chopped veal, spices, and parsley, coated in breadcrumbs and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Veal Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped veal with salt, pepper, cayenne, onion juice, celery salt, and parsley.

  2. Moisten the mixture with the beaten egg and white sauce.

  3. Shape the mixture into molds.

Coat and fry

  1. Roll each mold in fine bread crumbs, then dip in egg, and coat again with bread crumbs.

  2. Fry the croquettes in hot fat 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.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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 croquette and gives it a savoury, meaty flavour.
White sauce
Adds moisture and binds the chopped veal so the mixture holds its shape.
Beaten egg
Helps bind the mixture and, with bread crumbs, forms a crisp outer coating.
Fine bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust during frying.

The step that matters

Shape and coat the croquettes firmly. If the mixture is too wet or the coating is thin, the croquettes can fall apart in hot fat. The egg and bread crumb double coat seals the surface so the interior stays together while the crust sets and browns.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper, celery, parsley, egg, sauce, bread):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, celery, parsley, egg, sauce, 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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