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Ham Croquettes

Ham croquettes made with cooked ham, mashed potatoes, bread crumbs, eggs, butter, cayenne pepper, and fried in oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Ham Croquettes

Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Ham Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Combine ham, cayenne, butter, 2 eggs, and mashed potatoes in a bowl.

  2. Let the mixture cool slightly.

Shape and coat

  1. Shape the cooled mixture into croquettes.

  2. Roll the croquettes in bread crumbs.

  3. Dip the croquettes in beaten egg.

  4. Coat the croquettes again in bread crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat oil in a frying pan.

  2. Fry the croquettes for 2 minutes until golden.

  3. Drain the croquettes on paper towels.

  4. Serve.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

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

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

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

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the filling together and form the beaten egg coating that helps crumbs stick.
Mashed potatoes
Provide the soft, moist body of the filling that holds the croquette shape.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.
Ham
Adds savory, meaty flavor to the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the filling, improving flavor and softness.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool slightly before shaping. Hot mashed potato mixture is soft and sticky, so it is hard to shape and may break apart. Cooling firms it enough to hold its form through coating and frying.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, bread, butter, egg, pepper. 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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