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Beef Croquettes

Beef croquettes are shaped beef patties fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Beef 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 ↓

Beef Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Chop the cooked beef finely.

  2. In a saucepan, melt the butter and stir in the flour to make a roux.

  3. Gradually add the gravy or stock, stirring until thickened.

  4. Mix in the chopped beef, parsley, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.

Shape and fry

  1. Allow the mixture to cool, then shape into croquettes.

  2. Fry in hot oil until golden brown.

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. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked beef
Provides the main filling and meaty flavour.
Butter
Enriches the roux and adds richness to the filling.
Flour
Thickens the gravy into a binding sauce through the roux.
Gravy or stock
Supplies liquid and savoury flavour that thickens into the binding sauce.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture before shaping. A thickened filling that is still warm is soft and sticky, so it may not hold its shape or may break apart in hot oil. Cooling lets the starch set so the croquettes keep their form while frying.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, flour, parsley, pepper):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, flour, 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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