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Celery Croquettes

Celery croquettes are small fried pieces of steamed celery coated in beaten eggs and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Celery Croquettes

Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Celery Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the celery and remove the coarse outer stalks.

  2. Steam the celery until slightly tender.

  3. Cut the celery into 2‑inch pieces.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each piece into the beaten eggs, then coat with bread crumbs.

  2. Fry in boiling butter, vegetable oil, or olive oil until golden brown.

Season and serve

  1. Dust with pepper and coarse sea salt, and serve hot with white or tomato sauce.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Celery + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,110 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 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

Celery
Forms the main body of the croquette and gives it its tender, vegetable-forward texture.
Eggs
Bind the bread crumb coating to the celery and help it set and brown when fried.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust that absorbs little oil and contrasts with the soft celery.

The step that matters

Fry in hot fat until golden brown. Fat must be hot enough to crisp the egg and crumb coating quickly. If the fat is too cool, the coating soaks up oil and turns greasy before it browns.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, egg, pepper, butter. 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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