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Croquettes of Sweetbreads

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

  3. Cool sweetbreads in cold water.

Make the mixture

  1. Chop sweetbreads finely to a paste and season with salt, pepper, and grated onion.

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

  3. Shape the mixture into small balls or cork shapes.

Coat, fry and serve

  1. Roll each croquette in cracker dust.

  2. Dip each croquette in beaten eggs.

  3. Roll each croquette again in cracker dust.

  4. Fry each croquette in hot fat until golden brown.

  5. Drain the fried croquettes on brown paper.

  6. 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 croquettes, becoming soft and finely textured once chopped.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and form a coating that helps the crumbs adhere.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb moisture so the mixture holds its shape, and form a crisp golden coating.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, contributing flavour and a tender interior.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness to the mixture, keeping the interior tender.

The step that matters

Forming a stiff mixture. If the mixture is too wet, the croquettes will slump or crack in the hot fat. Enough cracker crumbs absorb the liquid so the shapes hold together while frying.

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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