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Croquettes of Veal

Small meatballs of roasted veal and mushrooms coated in egg and breadcrumbs, fried in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Croquettes of Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut the roasted veal into very small dice or mince it into fine shreds.

  2. Add the same amount of chopped mushrooms, truffles, or red tongue.

  3. Boil enough sauce until it thickens. Mix the meat into the sauce.

  4. Season with pepper and nutmeg.

  5. Spread the mixture on a dish about 1 inch thick. Smooth the mixture. Cover with buttered paper. Cool in the fridge.

Shape and coat

  1. Cut into about 24 pieces.

  2. Shape into corks, balls, or pears.

  3. Dip each piece in beaten egg. Roll each piece in bread crumbs.

  4. Place on a dish until ready to fry.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat hog's lard until hot.

  2. Fry the croquettes until golden brown.

  3. Drain on a napkin to absorb excess grease.

  4. Serve with fried parsley.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Roasted veal
Provides the main meat body that forms the filling's bulk and flavor.
Mushrooms, truffles, or red tongue
Adds extra texture and savory flavor to the meat filling.
Sauce (allemande, bechamel, veloute, or supreme)
Binds the meat into a thick mixture that holds its shape when chilled.
Beaten egg
Acts as the glue that helps the bread crumbs adhere to each croquette.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, golden-brown outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Chill the filling until firm before shaping. A warm, loose mixture cannot hold its shape, so pieces may crack or burst. Thorough chilling firms the sauce so the croquettes keep their form and coating stays intact in the hot fat.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, mushroom, sauce, pepper, bread, egg, parsley):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, mushroom, sauce, pepper, bread, egg, parsley. 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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