Why it works: Egg and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Potato Croquettes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the paste
Mash or rub the steamed potatoes through a wire sieve.
Add a little coarse sea salt and enough yolk of egg to make a stiff paste.
Shape and coat
Take a small amount of the potato mixture and roll it into a ball.
Dip the ball in egg and then in lightly salted bread crumbs.
For a nice crust, repeat the egg and crumb process.
Fry and serve
Place the croquettes in a wire basket and immerse in boiling fat.
Shake the basket lightly until the croquettes are golden.
Remove and place on paper to absorb excess fat before serving.
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.
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Potato + breadtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together434 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,978 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Potatoes
- Form the main body of the croquette, giving a soft, starchy interior once mashed.
- Yolk of egg
- Binds the mashed potato into a stiff paste that holds its shape.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, golden coating that browns during frying.
The step that matters
Drying the steamed potatoes. Excess moisture makes the paste soft and loose, so the balls may fall apart or absorb more fat. Potatoes that are steamed and very dry hold together better and give a firmer, crisper result.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, bread):
- Asparagusfits better
- Leekfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, bread. 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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