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Chicken Croquettes

A fried dish of minced chicken formed into rolls, coated in flour, and served with cresses or parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine minced chicken, bread crumbs, beaten egg, and enough gravy or drawn butter to moisten.

  2. Add pepper, salt, chopped parsley, and the rubbed egg yolks. Mix gently to form a paste.

  3. Shape the mixture into rolls or oval balls using floured hands.

Fry and serve

  1. Coat each ball in flour and fry in hot dripping or the lard-butter mixture, avoiding crowding.

  2. Drain on a hot colander to remove excess fat and serve in a heated dish with cresses or parsley.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, 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

Minced chicken
Forms the main body of the croquette and gives it its savory flavor.
Fine bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help the mixture hold its shape while frying.
Egg
Binds the mixture together so it holds its shape when formed and fried.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Add richness and a creamy texture to the chicken filling.
Flour
Forms a dry coating that helps the croquettes brown and crisp when fried.

The step that matters

Fry in hot fat without crowding. Hot fat sears the floured coating quickly, creating a crisp crust before the filling heats through. Crowding the pan drops the fat temperature, so the croquettes absorb more oil and turn greasy and pale.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Capersfits less well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, bread, egg, butter, pepper, flour. 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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