Name: Chicken Croquettes
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon butter; 1 teaspoon chopped onion; heaping tablespoon flour; 1 pint milk or water; salt and pepper to taste; 1 pound cooked chicken, cut into small pieces; ½ pound mushrooms, cut into small pieces; 2 or 3 egg yolks; oil for greasing

Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Chicken Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.
Fry the chopped onion in the butter until soft.
Stir in the flour and cook for a minute.
Slowly add the milk or water, stirring until the sauce thickens and clings to the spoon.
Season with salt and pepper.
Add the cooked chicken and mushrooms, and cook for another minute.
Remove from heat and stir in the egg yolks.
Pour the mixture into a well-buttered deep plate greased with oil.
Drizzle a few drops of oil on top to prevent hardening.
Let cool for several hours before breading and frying.

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.

Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,172 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Onion + chickentop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,814 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

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

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, milk, pepper, chicken, mushroom, egg):

Capsicumfits better
Potatofits better
Asparagusfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, pepper, chicken, mushroom, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.