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Croquettes of Corned Beef

A fried ball of chopped corned beef, onion, parsley, and spices coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 Corned Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a skillet, heat the dripping and sauté the chopped onion until soft but not browned.

  2. Add the flour and stock, stirring to combine, and bring to a boil.

  3. Stir in the chopped meat, parsley, nutmeg, pepper, and salt.

  4. Transfer the mixture to a plate and let it cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Once cool, shape the mixture into balls.

  2. Dip each ball in egg and coat with breadcrumbs.

  3. Fry the croquettes in hot fat 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  4. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Corned beef
Provides the main meaty filling and savory flavor of the croquettes.
Flour
Thickens the stock so the meat mixture binds and holds its shape.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and body to the filling when softened in fat.
Dripping
Carries flavor and adds richness, and its hot fat browns the coating during frying.

The step that matters

Let the filling cool fully before shaping. A warm, soft mixture cannot hold its shape and will crack or slump when dipped and fried. Cooling lets the flour-thickened filling firm up so the balls keep their form.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, flour, parsley, nutmeg, pepper):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, flour, parsley, nutmeg, 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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