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Meat Croquettes

Small meat cakes coated in cracker crumbs and fried in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Meat 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 ↓

Meat Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, mix the chopped meat, bread crumbs, eggs, butter, pepper, salt, and cream until well combined.

  2. Form the mixture into small cakes.

  3. Dip each cake into beaten egg, then roll in cracker crumbs to coat.

Fry

  1. Heat lard in a pan over medium-high heat and fry the cakes 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Veal + breadtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,056 recipes

    Shared aroma: cis-3-hexenol (green, grassy).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold veal, beef, or chicken
Provides the main body and savory flavor of the croquettes.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help bind the mixture so the cakes hold their shape.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and set during cooking to hold the cakes firm.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing tenderness and flavor to the filling.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness to the mixture.

The step that matters

Coating and frying the cakes. Dipping in egg and rolling in cracker crumbs forms a coating that protects the filling. Frying at medium-high heat browns the outside quickly, so the cakes need to be well coated and not overcrowded to keep the interior from breaking apart or absorbing excess fat.

“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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