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Cold Meat Croquettes

Cold meat croquettes are fried patties of minced roast beef mixed with fat, onion, parsley, anchovy sauce, breadcrumbs, and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Cold Meat Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. In a bowl, mix the minced beef, fat, onion, parsley, anchovy sauce, pepper, and salt.

  2. Melt the butter in a pan. Add the breadcrumbs and gravy. Remove from heat.

  3. Mix with the meat mixture.

Shape and fry

  1. Cut rounds of puff pastry.

  2. Place some of the meat mixture on each puff pastry round.

  3. Fold over the puff pastry.

  4. Brush the folded pastry with egg.

  5. Sprinkle the pastry with breadcrumbs.

  6. Fry the pastry in boiling fat until golden.

  7. Drain on paper towels.

  8. Serve on a napkin.

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 + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  4. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Anchovy + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold roast beef
Provides the main filling and meaty flavor of the croquettes.
Egg
Brushed on the pastry to help the breadcrumbs adhere and brown the surface.
Breadcrumbs
Thicken the mixture with gravy and form a crisp, golden coating.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor when melted with the breadcrumbs and gravy.
Gravy
Adds moisture and savoriness that binds the filling.
Puff pastry
Forms the flaky, crisp outer shell that encloses the filling.

The step that matters

Fry the pastry in boiling fat until golden. The fat must be hot enough to crisp and brown the pastry quickly. If it is too cool, the pastry absorbs grease and turns soggy before the filling heats through.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, egg, onion, anchovy, sauce, butter):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Garlicfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, egg, onion, anchovy, sauce, butter. 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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