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Macaroni Croquettes

A fried croquette made from macaroni, cheese, and a béchamel sauce, coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Macaroni Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the macaroni

  1. Cook the macaroni in salted boiling water until tender, then rinse in cold water and let drain.

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, cook the flour and butter until frothy, then add the milk and salt.

  2. Stir until the sauce thickens, then mix in the grated cheese and cooked macaroni.

  3. Place the mixture in a cool place until thoroughly cold, then shape into croquettes.

Coat and fry

  1. Roll each croquette in bread crumbs, dip in the egg mixture, and coat again with bread crumbs.

  2. Fry in deep oil until golden brown, then drain on brown paper.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  4. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  5. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroni
Forms the bulk of the filling and gives the croquettes their body.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a sauce that binds the filling together.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour, and cooks with the flour to form the roux base.
Milk
Liquid that turns the roux into a thick white sauce.
Cheese
Melts into the sauce, adding richness and savoury flavour.
Egg
Binds the breadcrumb coating so it adheres and browns during frying.

The step that matters

Chilling the mixture until thoroughly cold. A warm, loose filling will not hold its shape and can burst or spill out in the hot oil. Fully chilling the sauce firms the starch so the croquettes keep their form while frying.

“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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