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 ↓
Sausage Croquettes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the mixture
In a pot, combine the meat, eggs, butter, and milk over medium heat.
Add enough cracker crumbs or stale bread crumbs to thicken the mixture.
Shape and fry
Shape the mixture into oblong croquettes.
Roll the croquettes in cracker crumbs before frying.
Heat lard in a pan and fry the croquettes until golden brown.
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.
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,924 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Meat
- Forms the bulk of the croquettes and provides the savory flavor.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and set when heated, helping the croquettes hold their shape.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, giving a softer, more tender interior.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and softens the mixture as it heats.
- Cracker crumbs or stale bread crumbs
- Absorb liquid and thicken the mixture so it can be shaped.
The step that matters
Thicken the mixture before shaping. Adding enough crumbs lets the mixture absorb moisture and firm up. If it is too wet, the croquettes will be hard to shape and may fall apart or spread in the hot lard.
“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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