Why it works: Parmesan cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,163 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Chicken Croustades
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Prepare a salpicon by mixing minced chicken or turkey with minced ham or tongue and binding it with rich white sauce.
Cut the small French rolls in half lengthways and scoop out the soft parts of the bread.
Dry the crusts in a 350°F (175°C) oven and fill them with the chicken mixture.
Bake and serve
Coat the top with white sauce, then sprinkle with fresh breadcrumbs, chopped parsley, and grated Parmesan cheese.
Brush the tops with oiled butter and place in the oven for about ten minutes.
Serve hot.
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.
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Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,163 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Chicken + hamtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,497 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Chicken + parmesan cheesetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,846 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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
- Minced chicken or turkey
- Provides the main meaty body of the filling.
- Minced ham or tongue
- Adds savoury, salty flavour to the chicken filling.
- Rich white sauce
- Binds the minced meats together and keeps the filling moist.
- Fresh breadcrumbs
- Form a crisp, browned crust on the top when baked.
- Grated parmesan cheese
- Melts and browns on the surface, adding savoury flavour and colour.
- Oiled butter
- Fat that helps the topping brown and crisp in the oven.
The step that matters
Drying the crusts in the oven. The bread shells must be dried until firm so they hold the moist filling without going soggy. Under-drying lets the sauce soak through the bread, while over-drying makes them brittle and prone to breaking.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, ham, sauce, parmesan cheese, butter):
- Capersfits better
- Garlicfits better
- Celeryfits about as well
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, ham, sauce, parmesan cheese, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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