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Veal Croquettes

Veal croquettes are small, breaded veal patties fried in lard and served hot with tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Veal Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the veal mixture

  1. Combine milk, butter, cornstarch mixed with a little cold milk, celery salt, and white pepper in a saucepan.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly, and cook for 3 minutes until thickened.

  3. Mix the hot sauce with the chopped veal until it reaches the consistency of thick cream.

  4. Allow the mixture to cool until it can be molded into shapes.

Coat and fry

  1. Combine the beaten egg with cold water in a bowl.

  2. Shape the veal mixture into croquettes.

  3. Dip each croquette in cracker crumbs.

  4. Dip each croquette in the egg mixture.

  5. Dip each croquette again in cracker crumbs.

  6. Fry the croquettes in deep lard until light brown.

  7. Drain the croquettes on brown paper to absorb excess fat.

Serve

  1. Serve hot with tomato sauce.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Celery + white peppertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together853 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Veal + celerytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,336 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold veal
Forms the main body of the croquette and gives it its meaty filling.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk into a sauce that binds the veal and lets it be shaped.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and softness to the filling.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the sauce, improving flavour and mouthfeel.
Egg
Binds the cracker crumb coating so it adheres during frying and sets to a crisp shell.
Cracker crumbs
Form the crisp, browning outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Cool the veal mixture until it can be molded. If the mixture is still warm and loose, the croquettes will not hold their shape and may split or fall apart in the hot fat. Cooling lets the starch-thickened sauce firm up enough to handle.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, milk, celery, egg. 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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