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Maccaroni and Cheese Croquettes

A fried ball of macaroni, cheese, and eggs coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Maccaroni and Cheese Croquettes

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the macaroni

  1. Wash the macaroni.

  2. Boil the macaroni in water for five minutes.

  3. Strain the water.

  4. Add the milk.

  5. Cook for about 45 minutes.

Make the mixture

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the flour.

  3. Add the macaroni cut into small pieces.

  4. Add the cream, cheese, egg yolks, and seasoning.

  5. Stir over the heat for a few minutes.

  6. Let the mixture cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into balls.

  2. Roll the balls in egg whites and breadcrumbs.

  3. Fry the balls in hot oil for two minutes.

  4. Drain the croquettes on paper.

  5. Serve hot.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

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

Macaroni
Forms the bulk of the filling, giving the croquettes body and a chewy texture.
Butter
Enriches the base and adds richness to the sauce binding the filling.
Flour
Thickens the milk and butter into a sauce that holds the mixture together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and softness.
Cheese
Adds savoury flavour and helps the filling set firm when cooled.
Eggs
Egg whites and yolks bind the mixture and help the coating set during frying.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before shaping. A warm, soft filling is too loose to form into balls and may burst or fall apart in hot oil. Cooling lets the starch-thickened sauce firm up so the croquettes hold their shape.

“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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