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Mutton Croquettes

Mutton croquettes are small, breaded balls of cold roast mutton mixed with stock, egg, and seasonings, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Mutton Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mutton mixture

  1. Melt the butter in a stewpan, then add pepper and salt to taste.

  2. Pour in the stock and add the chopped parsley.

  3. Stir in the egg yolks and the cold, chopped mutton.

  4. Heat the mixture without boiling.

  5. Spread the mixture on a dish to cool.

Shape and coat

  1. Divide the cooled mixture into equal portions.

  2. Shape each portion into egg-shaped balls.

  3. Roll the balls in grated bread crumbs.

  4. Beat the egg whites lightly and add salt, pepper, olive oil, and water.

  5. Dip the balls in the egg mixture.

  6. Roll the dipped balls again in bread crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Melt butter or lard in a frying pan.

  2. Fry the balls until light brown on both sides.

  3. Sprinkle with salt and garnish with fried parsley.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + olivetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,649 recipes

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

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Olive + breadtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,091 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 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

Cold roast mutton
Forms the main body and flavor of the croquettes.
Egg yolks
Bind the chopped mutton and stock into a mixture that holds its shape.
Egg whites
Form a coating that helps the bread crumbs stick and crisp when fried.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the mixture cook smoothly in the stewpan.
Stock
Adds moisture and savoriness to the mutton mixture.
Grated bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Heat the mixture without boiling. Boiling a mixture thickened with egg yolks can curdle the eggs and make the texture grainy, so the mixture should only be heated gently until it thickens enough to hold its shape when cooled.

“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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