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 ↓
Potato Croquettes
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Add the yolk of the egg, milk, butter, pepper, and salt to the mashed potatoes.
Form the mixture into cone shapes.
Coat and fry
Roll each cone in the egg white and then in bread crumbs.
Fry in hot fat (400°F / 200°C) until golden brown.
Serve
Serve with cold meat or game.
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.
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Potatoes
- Form the bulk of the croquette and give a soft, fluffy interior when mashed.
- Egg
- The yolk binds the mashed potato, and the white helps the bread crumbs adhere.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, softening the mash and adding flavour.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp outer coating that browns when fried.
The step that matters
Fry in hot fat until golden brown. Frying in hot fat quickly sets the crumb coating into a crisp crust before the soft potato interior overheats or absorbs excess fat. Fat that is not hot enough lets the croquettes soak up oil and turn greasy and pale.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, milk, pepper, bread):
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Potatothe original
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Tomatofits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, milk, pepper, 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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