Skip to main content
Main

Chicken and Brain Croquettes

Croquettes made from ground chicken, mashed brains, and a cream-based binder, then fried in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Chicken and Brain Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil the hen until cooked, then grind it in a meat grinder.

  2. Parboil the brains and mash them finely.

  3. Mix the ground chicken with the mashed brains.

  4. Beat the egg whites and combine them with the chicken and brains mixture.

  5. Season with salt and pepper.

  6. In a saucepan, heat the cream or milk and butter, then whisk in the flour until it boils.

  7. Combine the cream dressing with the chicken and brains mixture and add the cracker crumbs.

  8. Let the mixture cool, then shape it into desired forms.

Coat and fry

  1. Roll the shaped croquettes in the yolks of two eggs and then in cracker crumbs.

  2. Heat lard in a deep vessel until boiling, then fry the croquettes until light 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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 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

Egg whites
Beaten whites bind the chicken and brain mixture so the croquettes hold their shape.
Flour
Cooked into the cream mixture, it thickens the dressing and helps the filling hold together.
Cream or milk
Forms the cooked dressing that adds moisture and softness to the filling.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb moisture in the filling and form a crisp outer coating when fried.
Brains
Mashed fine, they add richness and a soft, creamy texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before shaping. A hot, loose filling stays soft and sticky, so croquettes can slump or split. Cooling lets the starch in the flour-thickened dressing set, making the mixture firm enough to shape and coat cleanly.

“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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes