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Croquettes De Semoule

Semolina croquettes are fried balls made from a semolina and milk mixture, seasoned with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and parmesan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Croquettes De Semoule

Ingredients

Directions

Make the semolina base

  1. Boil the milk and butter together.

  2. Stir in the semolina and cook slowly for 20 minutes.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  4. Add the egg yolks and cheese, and mix well.

  5. Spread on a flat dish to cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape into oblong or round pieces.

  2. Dip in beaten egg.

  3. Coat with breadcrumbs.

  4. Fry in hot fat or clarified butter.

  5. Drain on a cloth.

Serve

  1. Serve on a folded napkin.

  2. Garnish 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Semolina + nutmegtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together53 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Semolina
Thickens the milk into a firm paste that sets as it cools, so the pieces can be shaped.
Eggs
Egg yolks enrich and bind the paste, and beaten egg helps breadcrumbs stick.
Parmesan
Adds savoury, salty flavour and some firmness to the paste.
Milk
Hydrates the semolina so it swells and forms a smooth, creamy base.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the milk base and to the frying fat.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating when fried.

The step that matters

Cool the semolina fully before shaping. Semolina sets as it cools. If the paste is still warm, it stays soft and sticky and the pieces will break or lose shape in the breadcrumbs and hot fat.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Cinnamonfits about as well
  4. Cardamomfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against semolina, milk, egg, butter, 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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