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Croquettes of Veal

A dish of small veal and ham croquettes served with fried parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Croquettes of Veal

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut the veal and ham into very small dice.

  2. Mince the parsley and onion, then add to the veal.

  3. Melt 1 ounce of butter in a small stewpan, add the veal and ham, cover, and sweat on low heat for a few minutes, stirring occasionally.

  4. In another small stewpan, melt 1 ounce of butter and add 1 ounce of flour; moisten with 2-3 tablespoons of stock.

  5. Stir in the glaze, if using, and then mix in 2-3 beaten egg yolks, pepper, and salt.

  6. Combine the meat mixture with the sauce, mix well, and let cool on a dish.

Shape and fry

  1. Once cool, form the mixture into small pyramids, glaze with egg yolks, cover with bread crumbs, and fry in hot dripping until golden brown.

  2. Serve with fried parsley.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Provides the main body of the filling, giving the croquettes their meaty texture.
Flour
Thickens the butter and stock into a sauce that binds the filling so it holds its shape.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and enrich it, and their glaze helps the crumbs brown during frying.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the sweating and sauce steps.
Lean ham
Adds salty, savoury flavour to the veal filling.

The step that matters

Letting the mixture cool before shaping. A warm, loose filling will not hold its pyramid shape and can break open in hot fat. Cooling lets the starch-thickened sauce set so the croquettes keep their form while frying.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, parsley, butter, flour, egg, pepper):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, parsley, butter, flour, egg, 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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