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Mutton Croquettes, Plain

Mutton croquettes are small fried balls made from cold mutton, shallots, flour, stock, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Mutton Croquettes, Plain

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Chop or mince the cold mutton and any fat.

  2. Chop the shallots or onion and fry in hot fat until brown.

  3. Add the flour and brown it well.

  4. Gradually stir in the stock and bring to a boil.

  5. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, then remove from heat.

  6. Stir in the chopped parsley and the meat, then cool the mixture on a plate.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into small balls, brush with beaten egg, and coat with bread crumbs.

  2. Fry in hot fat for a few seconds until golden brown.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Shallot + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Provides the main meat body and savory flavor of the croquettes.
Flour
Browned with the onion and thickens the stock into a binding paste.
Stock
Moistens the flour and meat into a cohesive mixture that holds its shape.
Egg
Coats the balls so the bread crumbs adhere and form a crisp, golden shell.
Shallots or onion
Browned in fat to add sweetness and savory depth to the filling.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture fully before shaping. A warm, loose filling stays soft and sticky, so the balls can break or slump in the hot fat. Cooling lets the starch set and the mixture firm up enough to hold its shape when formed and coated.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, ham, shallot, flour, pepper, parsley, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, ham, shallot, flour, pepper, parsley, 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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