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Potato Croquettes

A fried potato croquette made with mashed potatoes, butter, cream, egg whites, salt, pepper, and cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Potato Croquettes

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Potato Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the croquettes

  1. Boil and mash the potatoes.

  2. Add butter, hot cream or milk, beaten egg whites, salt, and pepper.

  3. When cool enough to handle, shape the mixture into croquettes.

Coat and fry

  1. Roll each croquette in egg and then in cracker crumbs.

  2. Fry in hot lard 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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Potato + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Starchy base that mashes into a soft mixture that holds its shape when shaped.
Egg whites
Bind the mash together and set when heated, giving the croquettes structure.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, smoother texture in the mash.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the mash soft and easy to shape.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, browned outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Fry in hot lard until golden brown. If the lard is not hot enough, the coating absorbs fat and turns greasy before it crisps. Hot fat sets the crumb coating quickly, forming a crust that seals in the moist filling.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, 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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