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Veal Croquettes

Veal croquettes are small, fried meat cakes made with veal, peas, spices, onion juice, egg yolk, and thick white sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Veal Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix the veal, peas, salt, black pepper, cayenne, onion juice, egg yolk, and white sauce in the order given.

  2. Cool the mixture, then mold it into croquettes.

Coat and fry

  1. Coat the croquettes in breadcrumbs.

  2. Fry the croquettes in deep fat 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. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Peas + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,460 recipes

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

  3. Peas + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,331 recipes

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

  4. Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,841 recipes

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

  5. Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked veal
Forms the main body of the croquettes and provides their savory flavor.
White sauce
Binds the mixture together and keeps the croquettes moist inside.
Egg yolk
Adds richness and helps bind the mixture as it sets.
Peas
Add bulk, mild sweetness and a pop of texture.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture before molding. A warm, soft mixture cannot hold its shape and may split or slump in the fat. Chilling firms the white sauce so the croquettes keep their form and fry evenly.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Sesamefits better
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, onion, egg, sauce. 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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