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Beef Croquettes

This recipe uses raw eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Beef Croquettes

Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Beef Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Make 1 pint of poulette sauce in a 2-quart stewpan and reduce it to ½ pint.

  2. Thicken the sauce with the yolks of 3 eggs.

  3. Add chopped beef, parsley, salt, and pepper; mix well.

  4. Spread the mixture on a dish to ½ inch thick and let it firm and cool.

  5. Divide into 16 equal parts and place on a board sprinkled with breadcrumbs.

  6. Cover each part with breadcrumbs and shape into cork-like croquettes.

  7. Beat the egg whites for 1 minute; add pepper, salt, oil, and water.

  8. Dip croquettes in the egg mixture, roll in breadcrumbs, and place on a plate.

  9. Fry in hot fat for 20 minutes, moving gently for even coloring.

  10. When light brown and crisp, sprinkle with salt, garnish with parsley, and serve.

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.

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.

  1. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

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

  3. Sauce + parsleytop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,693 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sauce + peppertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,303 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

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

Sauce and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,303 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Nutmegfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, egg, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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