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Macaroni and Cheese Croquettes

Small rings of cooked macaroni mixed with milk, flour, cheese, egg yolk, and seasonings, formed into croquettes and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,426 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Macaroni and Cheese Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Make a sauce by thickening the milk with the flour mixed with cold water.

  2. Add the chopped macaroni, cheese, egg yolk, and seasonings.

  3. Cool the mixture on a plate.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape the mixture into croquettes.

  2. Dip the croquettes in breadcrumbs, then in egg, and again in breadcrumbs.

  3. Fry in deep fat until golden 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. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  2. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Flour
Thickens the milk into a sauce that binds the macaroni and cheese together.
Egg yolk
Binds the filling so the croquettes hold their shape when cooked.
Cheese
Adds rich flavor and helps the filling set as it cools.
Macaroni
Provides the bulk and body of the filling.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture fully before shaping. A warm, loose filling cannot be shaped and will spread or burst in hot fat. Cooling lets the starch in the sauce set so the croquettes keep their form while frying.

“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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