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Croquettes

A fried chicken mixture shaped into croquettes, coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Croquettes

Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Boil chicken slowly until tender.

  2. Chop dark and light meat together until as fine as possible.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt butter in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in flour to make a roux.

  3. Gradually add chicken stock and cream.

  4. Stir until thickened.

  5. Add salt, celery salt, parsley, lemon juice, white pepper, and red pepper to the sauce.

Shape and fry

  1. Combine the sauce with the chopped chicken until the mixture is stiff.

  2. Shape the mixture into croquettes.

  3. Roll the croquettes in light bread crumbs.

  4. Beat eggs with milk in a bowl.

  5. Dip croquettes in the egg mixture.

  6. Roll the croquettes in seasoned bread crumbs.

  7. Heat lard until boiling.

  8. Fry croquettes 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  3. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 flavour of the croquettes.
Butter
Enriches the roux and adds richness to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the butter into a roux that stiffens the sauce.
Chicken stock
Liquid base that, with cream, forms the thick binding sauce.
Eggs
Coat the croquettes so the crumbs adhere and brown when fried.

The step that matters

Combine the sauce with the chopped chicken until the mixture is stiff. If the mixture is too loose it will not hold its shape when rolled and may fall apart in the hot lard. Chilling the shaped croquettes before frying also helps them keep their form.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, butter, flour, cream, celery, parsley, lemon):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, flour, cream, celery, parsley, lemon. 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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