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Potato Croquettes

A fried ball of mashed potatoes mixed with salt, pepper, nutmeg, parsley, and egg, coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Potato Croquettes

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 ↓

Potato Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine cold mashed potatoes, salt, pepper, nutmeg, parsley, and 1 beaten egg.

  2. Mold the mixture into balls.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each ball into the second beaten egg, then coat with cracker or bread crumbs.

  2. Fry in hot oil until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Serve in a folded napkin.

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 + 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. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  5. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 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

Cold mashed potatoes
Form the main body of the croquettes and give them a soft, moist interior.
Beaten egg
Binds the potato mixture together and, when dipped, helps the crumbs adhere.
Cracker or bread crumbs
Form a crisp outer coating that browns during frying.
Ground nutmeg
Adds warm, aromatic flavour to the potato mixture.

The step that matters

Fry in hot oil until golden brown. If the oil is not hot enough, the coating absorbs oil and becomes greasy before it browns, while oil that is too hot browns the crumbs before the centre heats through. Hot, steady oil gives a crisp crust and a hot interior.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, nutmeg, parsley, egg, bread. 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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