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Ham Croquettes

Ham croquettes are fried balls of ham, mashed potatoes, eggs, butter, cream, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Ham Croquettes

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Ham Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Finely chop the cold boiled ham.

  2. In a bowl, mix the chopped ham with cold mashed potatoes, 2 eggs, a little butter, and cream.

  3. Form the mixture into balls and coat them in flour.

Fry and serve

  1. Melt a little butter in a frying pan over medium heat.

  2. Fry the balls until they are browned.

  3. Serve hot.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

Cold mashed potatoes
Provide the bulk and soft body that holds the croquette mixture together.
Eggs
Bind the mixture so the balls keep their shape while frying.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to keep the filling soft inside.
Flour
Coats the outside so the surface dries and browns in the pan.
Butter
Adds fat that helps the outside brown and gives flavour.

The step that matters

Fry the balls until they are browned. The flour coating and butter brown through frying, but the balls must be formed firmly and coated well first, otherwise they can break apart or absorb too much fat and stay pale. Gentle heat helps the outside colour evenly while the inside warms through.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, egg, butter, cream, flour):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, egg, butter, cream, flour. 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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