Name: Meat Croquettes
Ingredients: 1 pound meat (beef, chicken, lamb, mutton, veal, or fish); ¼ pound bread crumbs (or potato for fish); gravy, cream, or butter sauce (for moistening); 1 beaten egg; celery salt (to taste); pepper (to taste); coarse sea salt (to taste); catsup (for beef and fish)

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 ↓

Meat Croquettes

Ingredients

1 pound meat (beef, chicken, lamb, mutton, veal, or fish)
¼ pound bread crumbs (or potato for fish)
gravy, cream, or butter sauce (for moistening)
1 beaten egg
celery salt (to taste)
pepper (to taste)
coarse sea salt (to taste)
catsup (for beef and fish)

Directions

Choose your meat and finely chop it.
In a bowl, combine the meat with bread crumbs (or potato for fish).
Moisten the mixture with gravy, cream, or butter sauce.
Add the beaten egg and mix well.
Season with celery salt, pepper, and coarse sea salt.
For beef and fish, add catsup to the mixture.
Shape into croquettes and cook as desired.

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.

Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Bread + fishtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,668 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Meat + beeftop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,533 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Meat + fishtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together479 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

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, bread, cream, egg, pepper, beef, fish):

Nutmegfits better
Parsleyfits about as well
Celerythe original
Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, bread, cream, egg, pepper, beef, fish. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.