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Potato Croquettes

A fried potato dish formed into balls or croquettes, coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Potato 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 ↓

Potato Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the potato mixture

  1. Mash 2 pounds of cold potatoes through a sieve onto a plate.

  2. Heat the milk and butter in a saucepan until hot, then stir in the sifted potatoes.

  3. Remove the saucepan from heat and mix in the yolks of 2 eggs, chopped parsley, pepper, and salt.

  4. Let the mixture cool completely, then shape it into balls or croquettes.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each croquette in egg and coat with bread crumbs.

  2. Fry in boiling fat until golden brown.

  3. 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.

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. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the bulk and starch that set into a soft, fluffy interior.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, softening the mashed potato and carrying flavor.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and form a sticky coating that holds the bread crumbs.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust when the croquettes are fried.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool completely before shaping. Warm mash is soft and sticky, so croquettes slump and split. As it cools, the starch firms and the fat solidifies, letting the shapes hold through coating and frying.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Cinnamonfits less well
  4. Thymefits less well

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