Skip to main content
Main

Potato Croquettes

Mashed potato rolls coated in cracker crumbs and fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
Jump to recipe ↓
Potato Croquettes

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Potato Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Parboil and mash the potatoes.

  2. Add butter, hot cream or milk, beaten egg whites, salt, and pepper; mix well.

  3. Let the mixture cool, then shape it into medium‑sized oblong rolls.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each roll into beaten eggs, then coat with rolled and sifted cracker crumbs.

  2. 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.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  4. Potato + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the filling, giving the croquettes their soft, starchy body.
Egg whites
Bind the mashed potato so the rolls hold their shape when fried.
Butter
Adds richness and softness to the mashed potato filling.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and smoothness to the mashed potato.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before shaping. Warm, soft potato mash is too loose to hold its shape, so the rolls may break or split in the hot lard. Cooling firms the starch so the coated rolls stay intact while frying.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, 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.

More potato croquettes recipes

You might also like