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Croquettes of Sweetbreads

Croquettes of Sweetbreads are fried balls made from veal sweetbreads, eggs, butter, cream, and cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Croquettes of Sweetbreads

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sweetbreads

  1. Soak sweetbreads in cold salted water for 1 hour, removing pipes and membranes.

  2. Boil sweetbreads in salted water with vinegar for 20 minutes, then cool in cold water.

  3. Chop sweetbreads finely, almost to a paste.

Make the mixture

  1. Season the chopped sweetbreads with salt, pepper, and grated onion.

  2. Add beaten egg yolks, butter, cream, and enough cracker crumbs to form a stiff mixture.

  3. Wet hands with cold water and shape the mixture into small balls or cork shapes.

Coat and fry

  1. Roll the croquettes in cracker crumbs.

  2. Dip the croquettes in beaten eggs.

  3. Roll the croquettes again in cracker crumbs.

  4. Heat oil in a frying kettle.

  5. Carefully drop the croquettes into the hot oil.

  6. Fry until golden brown.

  7. Drain the croquettes on brown paper to remove excess grease.

  8. Serve hot with sliced lemon or parsley.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + oniontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweetbreads
Provide the main body of the filling, chopped fine so it binds into a smooth, tender mixture.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and form a coating that sets and browns during frying.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the shaped croquettes a firm structure and crisp outer crust.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the filling soft inside the crust.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour, enriching the filling's texture.

The step that matters

Frying the croquettes. The coated croquettes need hot oil and should be fried until golden brown. Oil that is too cool lets the coating soak up grease and can loosen the filling, so they stay soft and oily instead of crisp.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, vinegar, pepper, egg, butter, cream. 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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