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Chicken Croquetts

A fried dish of seasoned chicken formed into pear-shaped balls coated with breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Chicken Croquetts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Combine chopped chicken, soft bread crumbs, eggs, pepper, and coarse sea salt in a bowl.

  2. Moisten the mixture with cream or milk and add a little butter, mixing well.

Shape and coat

  1. Form the mixture into pear-shaped balls, adding chopped parsley if desired.

  2. Roll each ball in egg, then coat each ball with cracker crumbs.

Fry

  1. Fry the croquettes in hot lard 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  5. Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,258 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Chopped chicken
Provides the main body and protein of the croquettes.
Soft bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help the mixture hold its shape.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and form a coating that helps the crumbs stick.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture so the mixture stays tender rather than dry.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, browned outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Fry in hot lard until golden brown. If the lard is not hot enough, the croquettes absorb fat and turn greasy before the crust sets. Too much heat browns the outside before the inside is heated through, so the fry should be steady and the croquettes cooked through.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, bread, egg, pepper, cream, butter):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Garlicfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, bread, egg, pepper, cream, butter. 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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