Skip to main content
Main

Ham Croquettes

A fried snack of ham, mashed potatoes, eggs, butter, and cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Ham Croquettes

Why it works: Potato and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,456 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Ham Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix the chopped ham, hot mashed potatoes, 2 eggs, and butter together until well combined.

  2. Let the mixture cool, then shape it into croquettes about 2 inches long and ½ inch thick.

Coat and fry

  1. In a bowl, beat 1 egg with about ½ cup of water until mixed.

  2. Roll each croquette first in the egg mixture, then in the cracker crumbs.

  3. Fry the croquettes in hot lard in a wire basket 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. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  2. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Ham + potatotop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together127 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and form the egg wash that helps crumbs stick.
Mashed potatoes
Provide the bulk and soft, moist interior of the croquettes.
Ham
Adds savory flavor and meaty texture to the filling.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, browned outer coating when fried.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the filling.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture before shaping. Warm, soft potato mixture is too loose to hold its shape. Cooling firms it so the croquettes keep their form through coating and frying.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, egg, 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.

More ham croquettes recipes

Westphalian 3 See all 48 →

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipesSweet Potato CroquettesSweet Potato Croquettes53 recipes