Name: Corned Beef Croquettes
Ingredients: 2 cups cold corned beef, finely chopped; 1 cup rolled cracker crumbs; 1 beaten egg; ¼ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1 beaten egg (for coating); 1 cup cracker crumbs (for coating); butter (for frying)

Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Corned Beef Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

Remove all fat and gristle from the corned beef and chop it very finely.
Mix the chopped beef with rolled cracker crumbs, beaten egg, pepper, and salt.
Mould the mixture into little cones or cut into cakes with a biscuit cutter.

Coat and fry

Roll each piece in a beaten egg, then in cracker crumbs, and again in beaten egg.
Fry in hot butter until nicely browned on each side.
Drain and serve hot.

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.

Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,847 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Beef + eggtop 31% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 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

Corned beef: Provides the main body and savoury flavour of the croquettes.
Rolled cracker crumbs: Absorb moisture and bind the chopped beef so it holds its shape.
Beaten egg: Binds the mixture together and helps the coating adhere during frying.
Butter: Fat for frying that promotes browning and a rich, golden crust.

The step that matters

Fry in hot butter until nicely browned on each side. If the butter is not hot enough, the coating absorbs fat and turns greasy instead of crisping, and the egg-and-crumb layers can separate or break. Good browning comes from hot fat acting on the proteins and sugars at the surface.

“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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Corned Beef Croquettes