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Potato Croquettes

A fried ball of mashed potatoes mixed with butter, egg yolk, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Potato Croquettes

Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Potato Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Mash the potatoes

  1. Scoop the inside from the baked potatoes into a saucepan.

  2. Add salt, pepper, butter, and egg yolk to the potatoes.

  3. Beat well until the mixture leaves the sides of the pan and is firm.

  4. Spread the mixture out to cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape into balls the size of a large walnut or into cork shapes.

  2. Fry as directed for Potato Cakes.

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

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

  2. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Baked potatoes
Provide the starch and bulk that set firm as the mixture cools, so the shapes hold together.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender interior.
Egg yolk
Binds the mashed potato and enriches its color and flavor.

The step that matters

Beat well until the mixture leaves the sides of the pan and is firm. Beating develops a cohesive, stiffer mash. If it stays loose, it will not hold its shape when cooled and shaped, and it may break apart or absorb too much oil during frying.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, 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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