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Egg Croquettes

Egg croquettes are small fried balls made from boiled eggs, preserved mushrooms, milk, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Egg Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Finely chop the eggs and rub them through a wire sieve.

  2. Fry the mushrooms lightly in the hot butter.

  3. Stir in the flour, then add the milk and boil well.

  4. Add the eggs, season to taste, and mix in a pinch of nutmeg.

  5. Spread the mixture on a plate to cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Once cool, shape into balls or corks.

  2. Coat with a batter made of milk and flour mixed to the consistency of cream, then cover with breadcrumbs.

  3. Fry in hot fat until golden-brown, then drain well.

  4. Garnish 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Hard-boiled eggs form the bulk of the filling, giving it body and a firm, sliceable texture.
Butter
Fat that cooks the mushrooms and carries their flavour into the filling.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth binding sauce that holds the filling together.
Milk
Liquid that turns the flour and butter into a sauce, adding creaminess to the filling.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, browned outer crust when the croquettes are fried.

The step that matters

Cool the filling fully before shaping. A warm, loose mixture stays soft and sticky, so it will not hold its shape and may burst or fall apart in the hot fat. Chilling firms the starch-thickened sauce and the egg so the balls keep their form.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, mushroom, butter, flour, milk, nutmeg, pepper):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, mushroom, butter, flour, milk, nutmeg, 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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