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Mutton Croquettes

Mutton croquettes are small, breaded meatballs made from cold roast mutton, veal or pork, stock, eggs, and breadcrumbs, fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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

Prepare the meat

  1. Remove fat, skin, and gristle from the mutton and chop it very fine.

  2. If desired, add half the quantity of cold veal or pork and chop together.

Make the filling

  1. Melt the butter in a stewpan.

  2. Add pepper and salt to taste.

  3. Pour in the stock and add the chopped meat.

  4. Add the chopped parsley and egg yolks, and heat without boiling.

  5. Spread the mixture on a dish to cool.

Shape and coat

  1. Once cool, divide into equal portions and shape into egg-shaped balls.

  2. Roll the balls in grated bread crumbs.

  3. Beat the egg whites lightly and add salt, pepper, olive oil, and water; mix well.

  4. Dip the balls in the egg mixture and roll them 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. Bread + olivetop 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

Mutton
Forms the main body of the croquettes, giving them their savory flavor and filling.
Butter
Enriches the filling with fat, adding richness and a smooth texture to the mixture.
Stock
Moistens the chopped meat so the filling stays tender and cohesive.
Egg yolks
Bind the filling so it holds its shape when cooled and shaped.
Egg whites
Form the wet coating that helps bread crumbs stick to the balls before frying.
Grated bread crumbs
Form a crisp outer crust that browns during frying.

The step that matters

Heat the filling without boiling. Gentle heat keeps the egg yolks from scrambling and curdling, so the filling stays smooth and binds evenly. Boiling would make it grainy and harder to shape.

“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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