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Beef Croquettes

Small fried cakes of finely chopped beef mixed with cracker crumbs, egg, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Beef Croquettes

Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Beef Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped meat, cracker crumbs, egg, pepper, salt, and sage. Add hot water or meat gravy until the mixture holds together.

Form and fry

  1. Form the mixture into small cakes.

  2. Fry the cakes in a hot buttered pan 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. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Sage + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,312 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,777 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold meat
Forms the main body and flavour of the croquettes.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb moisture and help the mixture bind into shapes.
Egg
Binds the mixture so the cakes hold their shape while cooking.
Butter
Fat for frying that promotes browning and a golden crust.

The step that matters

Adding hot water or gravy. Liquid must be added gradually until the mixture just holds together. Too little leaves the cakes crumbly, while too much makes them soft and hard to shape and fry.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, egg, pepper, butter. 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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