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Cheese and Potato Croquettes

Croquettes made from cottage cheese rolled in seasoned mashed potato, coated in egg and bread crumbs, then fried or baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Cheese and Potato Croquettes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Mix cottage cheese, baking soda, parsley, salt, green pepper, cayenne, and paprika thoroughly.

  2. Form the mixture into small rolls.

Shape and coat

  1. Embed each roll in seasoned mashed potatoes to form larger rolls.

  2. Roll the finished croquettes in egg and bread crumbs.

Fry or bake

  1. Fry in a pan with hot fat or brush with melted fat and bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until browned.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Cottage cheese + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together393 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Cottage cheese + parsleytop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together110 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Cottage cheese
Forms the soft, moist body of the filling inside the croquettes.
Baking soda
Raises the pH slightly, which can help browning and softness in the filling.
Mashed potatoes (in the method)
Form the outer layer that gives the croquettes a tender, starchy bite.
Egg and bread crumbs (in the method)
Egg binds the bread crumb coating, which becomes crisp and golden when fried or baked.

The step that matters

Fry or bake until browned. The fat or hot oven must be hot enough to brown the crumb coating quickly. Cooking too gently lets the croquettes absorb fat or dry out before a crisp golden crust forms.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cottage cheese, pepper):

  1. Dillfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Basilfits about as well
  4. Oreganofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cottage cheese, 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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