What does croquette mean?
A croquette is a small, usually oval or cylindrical portion of food — typically minced meat, fish, poultry, potatoes, cheese, or vegetables — bound with a thick sauce such as béchamel so it holds its shape, coated in egg and breadcrumbs, and deep-fried until golden and crisp. Croquettes are eaten across much of the world: they appear as tapas in Spain (where the ham-filled croqueta is beloved), as street snacks in the Netherlands and Belgium, and on British and American menus as salmon or ham croquettes. Because they were historically an economical way to use up leftovers, croquettes carry a homey, comforting connotation, yet their crisp coating and creamy interior have also made them popular on refined restaurant menus. The word is best used in the plural for servings, and it pairs naturally with the filling that names it.
nounA small roll or ball of minced meat, fish, potato, rice, or other food, bound with a sauce such as béchamel, coated in breadcrumbs, and deep-fried until crisp.
- A small breaded, deep-fried roll of minced food (meat, fish, potato, etc.) held together with a thick sauce.
- (In some cuisines) any similar fried patty or ball of chopped ingredients.
"The chef served smoked-haddock croquettes with a lemon aioli."
"She ordered a plate of jamón croquetas as a tapa."
"My grandmother's turkey croquettes were a way to make Sunday's leftovers last all week."
The plural croquettes is the standard form and by far the most common way the word appears, since croquettes are typically served in multiples.
"We shared a plate of six cheese croquettes."
The croquette was reportedly invented by French chef Louis XIV's cook — but today the Netherlands consumes some 300 million of them a year, making it arguably more Dutch than French.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of croquette
Croquette comes from French, where it is a diminutive form related to 'croquer', meaning 'to crunch' — an apt name for a food defined by its crisp breadcrumb crust. The word entered English in the early eighteenth century, as French cuisine became fashionable among the European elite. It shares this crunchy root with the lawn game croquet and with crochet ('little hook'), all ultimately deriving from the same French stem.
Related word forms
How croquette is actually used
Croquette is almost always used in plural when referring to a serving, since individual portions are small. The word is neutral to slightly upscale in register — it appears on bistro and fine-dining menus as well as in home cooking. Regional variants are numerous: the Dutch kroket and Spanish croqueta are closely related forms.
Easily confused with croquette
Croquet is a lawn game played with mallets and balls, whereas a croquette is a fried food; the two share a French root but are unrelated in meaning.