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Dessert

Apple Croquettes

Apple croquettes are fried apple cakes coated in breadcrumbs and dusted with powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Apple Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the apple base

  1. Combine apples, water, butter, sugar, and nutmeg in a saucepan.

  2. Cover and steam slowly until very soft.

  3. Rub the mixture through a sieve and return to the fire.

  4. Bring to a boil.

  5. Dissolve cornstarch in a little cold water and stir into the apple mixture.

  6. Simmer for 10 minutes.

  7. Add the beaten eggs and stir for a moment longer.

  8. Turn out onto a buttered platter and let cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape the cooled mixture into croquettes.

  2. Dip in beaten egg, then roll in bread crumbs.

  3. Fry in hot oil until golden brown.

  4. Drain and roll in powdered sugar before serving 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.

  1. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  4. Apple + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  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

Tart apples
Provide the main body and flavor, softening into a purée that forms the croquette base.
Cornstarch
Thickens the apple purée so it holds its shape when cooled and shaped.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and add richness and structure once stirred in and cooked.
Butter
Adds fat for richer flavor and a softer, more tender texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the tartness of the apples.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns during frying.

The step that matters

Stirring in the cornstarch and simmering. Cornstarch must be dissolved in cold water first so it does not clump, then cooked long enough to thicken. Undercooked starch leaves the purée too loose to shape into croquettes that hold together in the hot oil.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, nutmeg, egg, 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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