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Macaroni, Croquettes of

A dish of boiled macaroni mixed with minced game meat, ham, mushrooms, and sauce, formed into balls and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and shallot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,982 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Macaroni, Croquettes of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Mince the meat, ham, mushrooms, and truffle together.

  2. Boil the white sauce until reduced to 1/4 pint. Simmer shallot, sugar, pepper, and nutmeg in the sauce for a few minutes.

  3. Stir in the egg yolks and lemon juice until the yolks set.

  4. Mix the sauce with the minced ingredients and let it cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Form the mixture into egg-shaped balls using a tablespoon.

  2. Coat the balls in egg and bread crumbs.

  3. Fry in boiling lard for 8 to 10 minutes.

  4. Serve with fried parsley as a garnish.

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. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Shallot + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

  5. Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Pipe macaroni
Forms the bulk of the filling and gives the croquettes body.
White sauce
Binds the filling together and keeps it moist.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they set, helping the filling hold its shape.
Meat
Adds savoury flavour and substance to the filling.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating during frying.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg yolks and lemon juice until the yolks set. Egg yolks thicken when heated gently but can scramble if overheated, leaving lumps. Stirring steadily over low heat keeps the sauce smooth and firm enough to shape.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, ham, mushroom, sauce, shallot, sugar, pepper):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, ham, mushroom, sauce, shallot, sugar, pepper. 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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