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Croquettes of Cold Steak

Croquettes made from minced cold steak, potatoes, pepper, salt, egg, and cracker crumbs, fried in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Croquettes of Cold Steak

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Mince the cold steak very fine.

  2. Chop the cold potatoes and add to the minced steak.

  3. Season the mixture with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  4. Mix thoroughly and add the beaten egg.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into cakes.

  2. Roll the cakes in cracker crumbs.

  3. Fry in hot lard until golden brown.

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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  2. Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 recipes

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

  3. 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 steak
Provides the main meaty body and flavour of the croquettes.
Cold potatoes
Add starch and bulk, helping the mixture hold together and stay moist.
Beaten egg
Binds the minced mixture so the cakes keep their shape while frying.
Cracker crumbs
Form a dry coating that browns in the hot lard for a crisp exterior.

The step that matters

Fry in hot lard until golden brown. The lard must be hot enough to crisp the cracker-crumb coating quickly. If it is too cool, the croquettes absorb fat, turn greasy, and may break apart before the outside sets.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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