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Croquettes of Potatoes

Deep-fried potato croquettes made with butter, egg yolks, nutmeg, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Croquettes of Potatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potato base

  1. Boil the peeled potatoes until tender.

  2. Let the boiled potatoes dry.

  3. Pass the potatoes through a sieve into a stewpan.

  4. Add 4 ounces of butter and mix the butter into the potatoes with a spoon.

  5. Incorporate 6 egg yolks, ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt, and ¼ teaspoon nutmeg, keeping the mixture firm.

Shape and coat

  1. Pour the mixture onto a floured surface.

  2. Shape the mixture into a sausage.

  3. Cut the sausage into small pieces and form into croquettes.

  4. Dip each croquette in beaten eggs.

  5. Coat the croquettes with bread crumbs.

Fry

  1. Fry the croquettes in hot oil 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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the starchy bulk that gives the croquettes their soft, fluffy interior.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, softening the potato mixture and improving its flavour.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and add richness so the croquettes hold their shape.
Beaten eggs
Create a coating that helps the bread crumbs stick and promotes even browning.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Keep the mixture firm before shaping. Potatoes that are wet or too soft will not hold their shape when formed and fried. Letting the boiled potatoes dry and keeping the mixture firm reduces moisture, so the croquettes keep their form and fry crisp rather than breaking apart or absorbing excess oil.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

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