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Meat Croquettes

Meat croquettes are small fried or baked balls of cold meat mixed with mashed potatoes, onion, egg, milk, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Meat Croquettes

Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Meat Croquettes

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Chop the cold meat small.

  2. Pass the hot mashed potatoes through a sieve.

  3. Mix the meat, potatoes, chopped onion, salt, pepper, and beaten egg with milk.

Shape and cook

  1. Form the mixture into small balls, about the size of a large walnut.

  2. Fry the balls in hot fat until golden brown, or bake at 400°F (200°C) on a greased tin, brushing with liquid fat.

  3. Drain before serving.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Meat + potatotop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together786 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold meat
Provides the main filling and savory flavor of the croquettes.
Mashed potatoes
Binds the mixture and adds moisture so the balls hold together.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the balls keep their shape while cooking.
Onion
Adds aroma and savory flavor to the filling.

The step that matters

Fry the balls in hot fat until golden brown. Hot fat sets and browns the outside quickly, forming a crisp crust that holds the soft filling inside. If the fat is not hot enough, the balls absorb grease and can fall apart.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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