Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓
Chicken, Mushrooms and Sweet-breads Croquettes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the sweetbreads
Boil the sweetbreads in salted water for 20 minutes.
Plunge the sweetbreads into cold water to plump.
Remove the skin and gristle from the sweetbreads.
Chop the sweetbreads into small pieces.
Chop the cooked chicken and drained mushrooms together with the sweetbreads.
Make the sauce base
In a three-quart pan, melt the butter over medium heat.
Add the flour to the melted butter and stir until combined.
Gradually add the stock or water, stirring continuously until it boils for 1 minute.
Mix in the chopped meat and mushrooms.
Shape and fry
Spread the mixture on platters to cool.
Once cooled, shape the mixture into croquettes.
Fry the croquettes as desired.
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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Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,172 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).
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Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,902 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Mushroom + flourtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,253 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
- Sweetbreads
- Provide the rich, tender meat base that gives the croquettes their main texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and forms the base of the roux with the flour.
- Flour
- Thickens the butter and stock into a binding sauce that holds the croquettes together.
- Stock or water
- Hydrates the roux into a thick sauce that sets as the mixture cools.
- Cooked chicken or turkey
- Adds bulk and mild meaty flavor to the filling.
- Mushrooms
- Add moisture and earthy flavor to the filling.
The step that matters
Cool the mixture fully before shaping. The thickened filling must cool and firm up before shaping; if it is still warm and soft, the croquettes will not hold their form and may break apart when fried.
Swap the white pepper
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, mushroom, butter, flour):
- Thymefits better
- Garlicfits better
- Capersfits better
- White pepperthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, mushroom, butter, flour. 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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