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Pork, Croquettes of

A fried pork mixture formed into cork-shaped pieces, coated in egg and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 507 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Pork, Croquettes of

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan and lightly fry the onion.

  2. Stir in the flour, then add the stock and boil gently for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring briskly.

Shape and fry

  1. Add the pork, sage, marjoram, and season with salt and pepper; stir until well mixed and cool on a plate.

  2. Form the mixture into cork-shaped pieces, coat with egg and breadcrumbs, and fry in hot fat for 4 to 5 minutes.

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. Sage + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together507 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  4. Shallot + marjoramtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together287 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked lean pork
Forms the bulk of the filling and provides the main savoury flavour.
Butter
Enriches the base and carries the flavour of the fried onion.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a binding paste that holds the filling together.
Stock
Adds moisture and savoury depth, and with the flour sets a firm, cohesive mixture.
Egg
Acts as a coating that helps breadcrumbs stick and browns during frying.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture on a plate before shaping. Cooling firms the thickened paste so it can be formed without sticking or slumping. Shaping a warm mixture makes it soft and fragile, so the croquettes may break or lose their shape in the hot fat.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, sage, marjoram, butter, flour, pepper, egg):

  1. Shallotthe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, sage, marjoram, butter, flour, pepper, egg. 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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