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Hominy Croquettes

Hominy croquettes are fried balls of hominy, butter, milk, sugar, egg, and spices coated in cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Hominy Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. In a bowl, combine the cold boiled hominy and melted butter.

  2. Gradually stir in the milk until a soft, light paste forms.

  3. Add the white sugar, salt, and beaten egg; mix well.

Shape and coat

  1. With floured hands, roll the mixture into oval balls.

  2. Dip each ball in the beaten egg, then roll in cracker crumbs.

Fry

  1. Fry the croquettes in hot lard 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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Cold boiled hominy
Forms the bulk and body of the croquettes.
Milk
Adds moisture so the hominy forms a soft, workable paste.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the balls hold their shape.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender interior.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp outer coating that browns when fried.

The step that matters

Fry in hot lard until golden brown. The lard must be hot enough to set the egg and crumb coating quickly. If it is too cool, the coating soaks up grease and the croquettes turn greasy and may fall apart.

“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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