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Croquettes of Brains

Small fried balls made from brains, salt, bread crumbs, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Croquettes of Brains

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Blanch the brains and remove any membranes.

  2. In a bowl, beat the brains with salt, soaked bread crumbs, and the beaten egg.

Shape and fry

  1. Roll the mixture into small balls.

  2. Heat oil in a pan and fry the balls 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. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sheep's or calf's brains
Form the soft, creamy body of the croquettes once beaten and cooked.
Bread crumbs soaked in milk
Add moisture and softness, keeping the mixture tender rather than dense.
Egg
Binds the mixture together and sets as it cooks, helping the balls hold their shape.

The step that matters

Fry until golden brown. Frying in hot oil browns the outside through the Maillard reaction, which builds flavour and a crisp crust. The crust also helps the soft interior hold its shape. Cooking only until pale leaves the centre under-set.

“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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