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Veal Croquettes

Veal croquettes are small cakes of minced veal, ham or tongue, breadcrumbs, and seasonings, fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Veal Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Combine minced cold veal, fat ham or tongue, and butter if needed in a bowl.

  2. Add seasoning, chopped mushrooms, breadcrumbs, and moisten with stock.

  3. Simmer the mixture for 10 minutes, then let it cool.

Shape and coat

  1. Form the mixture into cakes.

  2. Brush each cake with beaten egg.

  3. Dip each cake in breadcrumbs.

Fry

  1. Fry the cakes in boiling oil until golden.

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. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Veal + mushroomtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,446 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Ham + mushroomtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,486 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

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

  5. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold veal
Forms the bulk of the cakes and gives them their main meaty body.
Fat ham or tongue
Adds fat and richness, keeping the cakes moist and flavorful.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and bind the mixture, then form a crisp golden coating.
Stock
Moistens the mixture so it holds together and stays tender.
Egg
Brushed on as a glue so the breadcrumb coating adheres and browns evenly.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before shaping. A warm, moist mixture is soft and sticky, so cakes can fall apart or lose shape. Cooling firms the binder so the cakes hold together in the hot oil.

“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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