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Ham Croquettes

A fried ball of ham, eggs, and mashed potatoes.

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

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 ↓

Ham Croquettes

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. In a bowl, mix the chopped ham, hard-boiled eggs, raw egg yolk, mashed potatoes, parsley, salt, and pepper until well combined.

  2. Flour your hands and roll the mixture into balls slightly larger than walnuts.

  3. Coat the surface of each ball with flour.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat fat in a pan until smoking hot, then drop in a few croquettes at a time.

  2. Fry until they are a light brown color, then remove and drain on paper towels.

  3. Serve hot.

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

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

  2. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

  5. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 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

Raw egg yolk
Binds the mixture so the croquettes hold their shape while frying.
Cooked potatoes
Add starch and body, giving the filling a soft, moist texture.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add a firm, tender texture and richness to the filling.
Cooked ham
Provides the savory meaty flavor that defines the croquettes.

The step that matters

Frying in smoking-hot fat. Fat that is hot enough sets the outer coating quickly and seals the filling, so the croquettes brown without absorbing much oil or falling apart. Frying in small batches keeps the fat temperature from dropping.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, egg, parsley, 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.

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