Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Chicken Croquettes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Combine chicken, bread crumbs, 2 beaten eggs, drawn butter, salt, and pepper in a bowl.
Form the mixture into pear-shaped balls.
Coat
Dip each ball into the remaining beaten egg.
Coat each ball with bread crumbs.
Fry
Heat a chafing dish.
Fry the croquettes until golden brown.
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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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,258 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).
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Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,902 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,964 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cooked chicken
- Forms the bulk of the croquettes and gives them their main flavor.
- Bread crumbs
- Bind the mixture and form a crisp outer coating when fried.
- Eggs
- Bind the chicken mixture together and help the coating adhere.
- Drawn butter
- Adds richness and moisture to the chicken mixture.
The step that matters
Form and coat the balls evenly. The mixture must be firm enough to hold its shape. Uneven coating leaves thin spots that can break open or absorb oil during 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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