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Egg Croquettes

Egg Croquettes are small, fried, egg-based pastries coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Egg Croquettes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Cook the eggs by pouring boiling water over them and keeping the water just below boiling for about 20 minutes.

  2. Cool the eggs, remove the shells, and chop them finely.

  3. Combine the chopped eggs with the white sauce and seasonings.

  4. Place the mixture on a platter to cool.

Shape and coat

  1. Shape the mixture into small egg-shaped croquettes.

  2. Dip each croquette in beaten eggs.

  3. Coat each croquette with fine bread crumbs.

  4. Dip each croquette again in beaten eggs.

Fry and drain

  1. Fry the croquettes in deep oil until golden brown.

  2. Drain the fried croquettes on brown paper.

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. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Sauce + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,120 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Provide the bulk of the filling, which sets firm when cooked and holds the croquette shape.
Thick white sauce
Binds the chopped eggs together and keeps the filling moist and creamy.
Fine bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.
Beaten eggs
Act as a glue so the bread crumbs adhere to the croquettes.

The step that matters

Cool the filling before shaping. A warm or loose filling will not hold its shape and can split or leak oil during frying. Cooling lets the white sauce thicken so the croquettes keep their form.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sauce, pepper, mustard, bread):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sauce, pepper, mustard, 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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