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Somerset Croquettes

A cheese and mild cheese croquette made with butter, flour, milk, eggs, and spices, fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Somerset Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Rub in the flour until well combined.

  3. Gradually add the milk while stirring continuously.

  4. Once boiling, add the grated cheese and egg yolks.

  5. Stir until the cheese melts and the mixture is smooth.

  6. Remove from heat and fold in the mild cheese cubes.

  7. Season with salt and cayenne pepper.

  8. Spread the mixture on a shallow pan to cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape into round croquettes.

  2. Dip each croquette in egg, then coat with bread crumbs.

  3. Fry in hot oil until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Serve with a lettuce course on a folded napkin.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  4. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  5. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the base and adds richness and flavour to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a stiff, shapeable paste.
Milk
Forms the liquid that the flour thickens into a smooth white sauce.
Grated cheese
Melts into the sauce to add savoury flavour and a creamy body.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the mixture as it sets.
Mild cheese
Cubed pieces stay soft inside the croquette, adding creamy texture.

The step that matters

Spread the mixture on a shallow pan to cool. The mixture must cool and firm enough to hold its shape. If shaped while warm and soft, the croquettes can slump and break open in the hot oil, so chilling the mixture first helps them keep their form during frying.

“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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