Skip to main content
Main

Potato Croquettes

A fried potato patty coated in cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Potato Croquettes

Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Potato Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the potato mixture

  1. Boil and mash the potatoes.

  2. Add the beaten egg whites, butter, salt, pepper, hot cream or milk, and nutmeg to the mashed potatoes.

  3. Let the mixture cool slightly.

Shape and coat

  1. Shape the mixture into croquettes.

  2. Roll the croquettes in the beaten egg whites.

  3. Coat the croquettes with cracker crumbs.

Fry

  1. Fry the croquettes in plenty of hot lard 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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the starchy base that holds the croquette shape and gives a soft interior.
Egg whites
Bind the mixture and form a coating that helps the crumbs stick.
Butter
Adds richness and a soft texture to the mashed potato.
Hot cream or milk
Adds moisture and smoothness, keeping the mashed potato soft and easy to shape.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp outer crust that browns during frying.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool slightly before shaping. A warm, soft potato mixture is sticky and hard to shape. Slight cooling firms it so the croquettes hold their form through coating and frying.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Spinachfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, pepper, cream, nutmeg. 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.

More potato croquettes recipes

Sweet 58 See all 311 →

You might also like

Potato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipesPotato BiscuitPotato Biscuit32 recipesPotato SnowPotato Snow23 recipes