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Beef Croquettes

A fried patty made from cold beef, stale bread, eggs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Beef Croquettes

Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beef Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Chop the cold beef finely.

  2. Soak the stale bread in hot stock.

  3. In a bowl, combine the chopped beef, soaked bread, beaten yolks of 2 eggs, pepper, salt, and onion juice.

  4. When the mixture is cool enough to handle, form it into croquettes.

Coat and fry

  1. Roll each croquette in breadcrumbs, then dip in beaten eggs, and roll in breadcrumbs again.

  2. Fry the croquettes in deep hot fat until golden brown.

  3. Serve 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.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

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

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the main body and savoury flavour of the croquettes.
Eggs
Beaten yolks bind the filling and the outer egg coating helps breadcrumbs adhere.
Stale bread
Soaked in stock, it absorbs liquid and keeps the filling moist and tender.
Breadcrumbs (in the method)
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Forming and coating the croquettes. The filling must be cool enough to handle so it holds its shape. Coating in breadcrumbs, egg, then breadcrumbs again gives a sealed layer that keeps the filling from breaking open in hot fat.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, egg, bread, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, egg, bread, pepper. 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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