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Beef Croquettes

Beef croquettes are fried balls of minced roast beef mixed with onion, herbs, breadcrumbs, and egg, served with mashed potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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

  1. In a bowl, combine minced beef, chopped onion, pepper, salt, mixed herbs, breadcrumbs, and egg yolk, then mix well.

  2. Form the mixture into balls or rolls.

Coat and fry

  1. Brush each ball with whipped egg white and dip into additional breadcrumbs.

  2. Fry in hot oil until golden brown, then drain on paper towels.

Serve

  1. Serve with mashed potatoes.

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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Beef + eggtop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

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

Pepper and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 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

Cold roast beef
Provides the main body and savory flavor of the croquettes.
Fresh breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and bind the mixture, giving it a softer interior.
Egg yolk
Binds the mixture together and adds richness to the filling.
Egg white, whipped
Forms a thin coating that helps the breadcrumbs adhere and brown evenly.
Onion
Adds moisture and savory aroma to the filling.

The step that matters

Fry in hot oil until golden brown. Hot oil quickly sets and browns the breadcrumb coating while heating the filling through. If the oil is too cool, the croquettes absorb grease and can turn soggy or fall apart.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, 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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