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Hominy Croquettes

Fried balls of hominy mixed with onions, salt, pepper, and milk or water, coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Hominy Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Combine hominy with enough milk or water to moisten in a saucepan.

  2. Boil slowly.

  3. Add onions, salt, and pepper.

Shape and coat

  1. Form the mixture into balls.

  2. Roll the balls in breadcrumbs.

  3. Dip the balls in beaten egg.

  4. Roll the balls again in breadcrumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat oil in a flat pan until hot.

  2. Fry the balls in batches until golden brown.

  3. Drain the fried balls on kitchen paper.

  4. Serve on a hot dish garnished with fried parsley and onion sauce.

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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  3. Milk + oniontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  4. Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Pepper + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

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

Pepper and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 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

What each ingredient does

Hominy
Forms the bulk of the croquettes and gives them their starchy, soft body.
Eggs
Bind the coated balls so the breadcrumbs stick and hold together while frying.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden browned crust during frying.
Milk
Moistens the hominy so it can be shaped into balls without crumbling.

The step that matters

Fry the balls in batches until golden brown. Crowding the pan drops the oil temperature, so the coating soaks up oil instead of crisping quickly. Frying in small batches keeps the oil hot and the crust crisp and even.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, pepper, egg. 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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