Skip to main content
Main

Veal Croquettes

Small veal croquettes coated in breadcrumbs, fried or baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Marjoram and mace work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 767 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Veal Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine minced veal, cream, beaten egg, salt, marjoram, and mace.

  2. Form the mixture into small cones by hand or using a wineglass.

  3. Coat the outside with breadcrumbs.

Cook

  1. Fry the croquettes in hot oil, basting frequently.

  2. Bake the croquettes in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C), basting frequently.

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. Marjoram + macetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together767 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. Veal + marjoramtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together525 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  3. Veal + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,761 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Cream + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,009 recipes
  5. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Forms the main body of the croquettes, giving them a tender, savoury meat texture.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the filling soft rather than dry.
Beaten egg
Binds the minced meat and cream so the mixture holds its shape when formed.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp outer coating that browns during frying or baking.

The step that matters

Forming the cones. The mixture is soft and wet from the cream and egg, so it must be well chilled or firmly shaped to hold its form before coating. Loose shaping can cause the croquettes to split or lose shape in the hot oil or oven.

Swap the marjoram

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, cream, egg, mace):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. White pepperfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Marjoramthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, cream, egg, mace. 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.

You might also like

Veal PattiesVeal Patties50 recipesBeef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipes