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Croquettes of Macaroni

A fried croquette made from macaroni, butter, Parmesan, diced tongue, coated in cheese, egg, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parmesan cheese and cheese match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,041 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Croquettes of Macaroni

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the macaroni

  1. Boil the macaroni in salted water until very tender. Drain.

  2. Toss the boiled macaroni with butter, Parmesan cheese, and cooked tongue in a saucepan.

  3. Spread the mixture on a well-buttered platter, about 1 inch thick.

  4. Cover the mixture with buttered paper and press down. Let cool.

  5. Divide the cooled mixture into six parts using the back of a knife.

Coat and fry

  1. Roll each part in grated cheese, then in beaten egg, and finally in breadcrumbs.

  2. Fry the coated croquettes in hot oil until well browned.

  3. Drain the fried croquettes and serve on a folded napkin.

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. Parmesan cheese + cheesetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,041 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

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

  3. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Parmesan cheese + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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 croquette and gives it a tender, starchy body.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury, salty flavour and helps the mixture bind as it cools.
Butter
Adds richness and coats the pasta so it stays moist and flavourful.
Cooked tongue
Contributes meaty flavour and savoury depth to the filling.
Beaten egg
Binds the breadcrumb coating so it adheres and browns evenly in the oil.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture fully before shaping. Cooling firms the starches and cheese so the mixture holds its shape. Shaping it warm makes it soft and sticky, and the croquettes may split or fall apart in the hot oil.

“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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