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Ham Croquettes

A fried patty of mashed potatoes, ham, and spices coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Ham Croquettes

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Ham Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine mashed potatoes, chopped ham, butter, cayenne pepper, and 3 eggs in a bowl, then mix well.

  2. Allow the mixture to cool, then shape it into small patties.

Coat and fry

  1. Roll each patty in bread crumbs, dip in beaten egg, and roll in bread crumbs again.

  2. Heat lard in a pan and fry the croquettes 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.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

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

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

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

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

Mashed potatoes
Provides the bulk and soft body that holds the croquette together.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and, when beaten, form a coating that helps crumbs stick.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned outer crust when fried.
Ham
Adds savoury, meaty flavour throughout the filling.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture before shaping. A warm, soft mixture is too loose to hold its shape and may split or slump in the pan. Cooling lets the starch and egg firm up so the patties keep their form and the coating adheres evenly.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, bread, butter, egg, 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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