Name: Sweetbread Croquettes
Ingredients: ½ lb lean beef, mutton, or 1 dessertspoonful chopped veal; 1 onion, chopped; 3 oz fat; a little grated nutmeg; salt and pepper to taste; 1 egg, beaten; breadcrumbs for coating; macaroni pieces for garnish

Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Sweetbread Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Pass the meat through a meat grinder twice and mix in the onion, fat, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.
Divide the mixture into portions and shape them like cutlets.
Insert a piece of macaroni at the thin end of each cutlet to resemble a bone.
Brush each cutlet with beaten egg and sprinkle with breadcrumbs.
Fry in hot fat until golden brown.
Arrange on a hot dish in a circle, garnished with vegetables in the center.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together13,015 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,371 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).