Name: Croquettes
Ingredients: cooked meat, fish, vegetables, cheese, eggs, or nuts; creamy sauce; bread or cracker crumbs; 1 egg, slightly beaten; cooking fat

Why it works: Bread and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the ingredients until tender, then finely chop them.
Mix the chopped ingredients with the creamy sauce.
Mould the mixture into desired shapes.
Roll the shaped croquettes in bread or cracker crumbs.
Dip them in the beaten egg, then roll in crumbs again.
Fry in hot fat 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.

Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,924 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Sauce + breadtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,934 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Meat + saucetop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,167 recipes
Meat + eggtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,432 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).