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Croquettes

A fried meat patty coated in cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Croquettes

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 ↓

Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Combine the ground meat, chopped onion, parsley, and salt in a bowl.

  2. In a pan, melt the butter, then stir in the flour until smooth.

  3. Gradually add the milk and stock, stirring until thickened.

  4. Pour the sauce over the meat mixture and mix well; let cool.

Shape and coat

  1. Shape the mixture into desired forms and roll in cracker crumbs.

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

Fry

  1. Fry in boiling fat 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Meat
Forms the bulk of the filling and provides the savory flavor.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk sauce that binds the meat mixture together.
Butter
Fat that is melted with flour to form the base of the sauce.
Milk
Liquid that, with the flour and butter, makes a thick sauce adding moisture and richness.
Egg
Coats the shaped croquettes so the cracker crumbs adhere and help them hold their shape.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before shaping. The sauce must firm up once cooled; if the mixture is still warm and loose, the croquettes will not hold their shape and may break apart in the hot fat.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, parsley, flour, butter, milk, egg):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, parsley, flour, butter, milk, egg. 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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