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Anchovy and Egg Croquettes

A fried croquette made from anchovy paste, boiled eggs, boiled tongue, pepper, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,260 recipes. Both carry hexanol, which smells green, fruity. The science ↓

Anchovy and Egg Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Place hard-boiled eggs in cold water.

  2. Remove the shells from the eggs.

  3. Chop the eggs finely.

  4. Combine the chopped eggs and anchovy paste in a bowl.

  5. Mix the mixture well with a wooden spoon.

  6. Chop the cold boiled tongue into a powder.

  7. Add the powdered tongue and pepper to the mixture.

  8. Take a teaspoonful of the mixture and roll it into a small ball.

Coat and fry

  1. Beat the raw egg in a plate.

  2. Dip each ball into the beaten egg.

  3. Spread the bread crumbs on a sheet of paper.

  4. Roll each ball in the bread crumbs.

  5. Heat clarified fat until steam rises.

  6. Make a small hole in each ball before frying.

  7. Fry the balls until they turn pale brown.

  8. Place the fried balls on a paper towel.

Serve

  1. Arrange the croquettes on a hot napkin.

  2. Top each croquette with a teaspoonful of maître d'hôtel butter before serving.

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. Anchovy + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

  2. Anchovy + eggtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

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

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

  5. Anchovy + peppertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Hard-boiled eggs
Form the soft, bulky body of the croquette filling.
Raw egg
Beaten coating that binds the bread crumbs to each ball and helps them set.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.
Anchovy paste
Adds a salty, savoury depth of flavour to the filling.
Cold boiled tongue
Adds meaty texture and body to the filling.

The step that matters

Make a small hole in each ball before frying. Air and moisture trapped inside a sealed ball expand as they heat and can burst the croquette. A small vent lets steam escape so the shape stays intact.

“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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