Skip to main content
Main

Cheese and Potato Croquettes

Cheese and potato croquettes are small rolls of cottage cheese and seasoned mashed potatoes coated in egg and breadcrumbs, then fried or baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 the croquettes

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

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

Cook

  1. Fry the croquettes in a pan with 1 tablespoon of hot fat until golden.

  2. Alternatively, brush with melted fat and bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden.

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. Parsley + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Cottage cheese + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together72 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Cottage cheese
Forms the main body of the filling, adding moisture and a soft, creamy texture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the cheese's acidity to lighten the filling and help it puff slightly.
Mashed potatoes
Form the outer layer, adding starch for a soft interior and a sturdy shell.
Egg
Binds the bread crumb coating so it adheres and browns evenly.
Bread crumbs
Create a crisp, golden outer crust when fried or baked.

The step that matters

Roll the finished croquettes in beaten egg and then in bread crumbs.. The egg acts as glue for the crumbs; if the surface is wet or the coating is thin, the crumbs can fall off or burn unevenly in the hot fat or oven.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cottage cheese, parsley, pepper, 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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesPotato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesMacaroni and CheeseMacaroni and Cheese102 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipes