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Mixed Croquettes

Mixed Croquettes are small fried balls made from cold meats, mashed potatoes, milk, and spices, coated in egg and bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mixed Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut cold meats into very small pieces to fill a pint cup.

  2. Sprinkle with salt, add celery seed, black pepper, mashed potatoes, and milk.

  3. Mix with hands, form into balls.

Coat and fry

  1. Beat the egg thoroughly, roll the balls in the egg, then in the grated bread.

  2. Fry in hot lard until evenly browned.

Serve

  1. Serve hot on green leaves.

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 + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Celery + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Cold meats
Provide the main filling and savoury flavour of the croquettes.
Mashed potatoes
Add bulk and moisture, helping the filling hold its shape.
Egg
Acts as a binder and glue so the bread coating adheres to the balls.
Grated bread
Forms a crisp outer crust that browns during frying.
Milk
Adds moisture to the filling so it stays soft and binds the mixture.

The step that matters

Fry in hot lard until evenly browned. If the lard is not hot enough, the coating absorbs excess fat and turns greasy before it crisps. Hot fat sets the egg and bread crust quickly, sealing the filling inside and giving an even golden colour.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, pepper, potato, milk, bread, egg):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, pepper, potato, milk, bread, 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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