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Curry Croquettes

Curry croquettes are fried meat and rice cakes coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Curry Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rice

  1. Wash the rice.

  2. Boil the rice in 1 cup of stock or water until all liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender, stirring frequently to prevent sticking.

Make the curry base

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Fry the onion until just colored.

  3. Add the curry powder and lemon juice, stirring over low heat for 1 minute.

  4. Stir in the flour.

  5. Add the ½ cup of stock, stirring until boiling and thickened.

  6. Mix in the minced meat and rice, season well to form a thick paste.

  7. If the mixture is too liquid, add the yolk of an egg and cook gently, stirring until thickened.

Shape and fry

  1. Turn the mixture onto a plate and shape it into a smooth flat cake.

  2. Divide into equal portions and roll each into a cork shape.

  3. Roll each shape in breadcrumbs.

  4. Brush each shape with egg.

  5. Roll each shape again in breadcrumbs.

  6. Fry in hot deep fat until golden brown and crispy.

  7. Serve on lace paper 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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  3. Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

  4. Rice + parsleytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,762 recipes

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

  5. Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,366 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

What each ingredient does

Minced meat
Provides the main filling and savoury body of the croquettes.
Rice
Bulks out the filling and helps it hold together as a thick paste.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the curry base and carries the flavour of the spices.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a sauce that binds the mixture.
Curry powder
Gives the filling its spiced, aromatic flavour.
Egg
Adds a coating that helps breadcrumbs stick and browns during frying.

The step that matters

Thickening the mixture before shaping. If the paste is too loose it will not hold its cork shape and may burst or soak up oil during frying. Cooking gently and stirring until thick, with the egg yolk if needed, gives a firm mixture that keeps its shape.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, rice, lemon, butter, flour, egg, parsley):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, rice, lemon, butter, flour, egg, parsley. 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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