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Croquettes of Veal

Croquettes of Veal are small fried meat cakes made with veal, mushrooms, and sauce, coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Croquettes of Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Combine minced veal and chopped mushrooms, truffles, or red tongue in a pot.

  2. Boil the sauce until stiff, then mix it into the meat mixture and season with pepper and nutmeg.

  3. Spread the mixture about 1 inch thick on a dish, smooth it, cover with buttered paper, and chill in the refrigerator.

Shape and coat

  1. Cut the chilled mixture into about 24 pieces and shape into corks, balls, or pears.

  2. Dip each piece in beaten egg, roll in bread crumbs, and place on a dish.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat hog's lard in a pan until hot, then fry the croquettes until golden brown.

  2. Drain the fried croquettes on a napkin, garnish with fried parsley, and serve immediately.

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

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 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

Roasted veal
Forms the main body of the croquettes and gives them their meaty flavour.
Mushrooms, truffles, or red tongue
Adds moisture and earthy flavour to the meat filling.
Sauce (allemande, bechamel, velouté, or supreme)
Thickens the mixture so it holds its shape when chilled and shaped.
Beaten eggs
Acts as a binder so the bread crumbs adhere to the croquettes.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp golden coating that browns during frying.

The step that matters

Chilling the filling before shaping. The mixture must be fully cold and firm so the pieces hold their shape. Warm filling stays soft, so the croquettes can split or collapse in the hot lard.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, mushroom, sauce, pepper, bread, egg, parsley):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, mushroom, sauce, pepper, bread, egg, parsley. 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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