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Veal Croquettes

A fried dish of minced veal and ham mixed with onion, spices, milk, eggs, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Veal Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. In a chopping bowl, mince the cold veal and a little cold ham.

  2. Add minced onion, mace, parsley, and pepper.

  3. In a saucepan, heat the milk and butter until boiling, then add the veal mixture.

  4. Beat the eggs and mix with corn-starch or flour, then add to the mixture.

  5. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring carefully.

  6. Remove from heat and spread on a platter to cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Once cooled, roll into balls and flatten each one.

  2. Dip the croquettes in beaten egg and then in bread crumbs.

  3. Fry in 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.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  5. Mace + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,268 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the main body of the croquette filling.
Milk
Moistens the filling and helps it become a soft, cohesive mixture when heated.
Eggs
Bind the filling and set when heated, helping the croquettes hold their shape.
Corn-starch or flour
Thickens the mixture and helps it firm up as it cooks and cools.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, softening the texture of the filling.

The step that matters

Cool the filling fully before shaping. A warm, soft mixture is too loose to roll and flatten. Cooling lets the starch and egg set, so the croquettes hold their shape and do not break apart in the hot fat.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, onion, parsley, pepper, milk, butter):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, onion, parsley, pepper, milk, butter. 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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