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Chicken Croquettes

Fried croquettes of minced chicken and sweetbreads bound with cream, butter, and spices, coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Chicken Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Chop the chicken and sweetbreads very finely.

  2. In a saucepan, combine cream, butter, and flour; heat while stirring until thickened.

  3. Add the chopped meat, mace, nutmeg, cayenne, onion, lemon rind, lemon juice, and parsley; stir until hot.

  4. Spread the mixture on a platter and refrigerate until hardened.

Shape and coat

  1. Rub your hands with bread crumbs, then mold the mixture into croquettes.

  2. Beat the eggs and dip each croquette in the egg, then roll in bread crumbs.

  3. Let them stand for a few minutes, then dip again in egg and roll in bread crumbs.

Fry

  1. Fry in boiling lard, two or three at a time, turning constantly 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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main body and substance of the filling.
Sweetbread
Adds a tender, rich texture to the chopped meat filling.
Cream
Thickened with flour, it binds the filling into a mass that holds its shape.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the sauce stay smooth and flavorful.
Flour
Thickens the cream and butter into a binding sauce for the filling.
Eggs
Coat the croquettes so the bread crumbs adhere and form a crisp, browned crust.

The step that matters

Chill the filling until firm. A warm, soft mixture will not hold its shape when molded and may fall apart in the hot fat. Chilling lets the thickened cream set so the croquettes keep their form while frying.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, cream, butter, flour, nutmeg, onion):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, cream, butter, flour, nutmeg, onion. 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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