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Croquettes of Fowl

Minced fowl formed into balls, coated in breadcrumbs, and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,062 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Croquettes of Fowl

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Combine minced fowl, stock, cream, salt, and nutmeg in a pan.

  2. Add flour to achieve the right thickness and let it boil well.

  3. Pour the mixture onto a deep dish and let it cool and set.

Shape and coat

  1. Once set, divide into parts and form small balls or egg shapes.

  2. Roll each ball in fine bread crumbs, then coat each ball with beaten egg yolk.

  3. Roll again in bread crumbs and fry until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Serve garnished with 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. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Meat from a cold fowl
Forms the bulk of the croquette and gives it its savoury flavour.
Flour
Thickens the stock and cream so the mixture holds its shape when set.
Fine bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.
Egg yolk
Helps the bread crumbs adhere and browns the outside when fried.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool and set fully before shaping. A warm or loose mixture will not hold its shape and may split or collapse in the fat. Thickening with flour and chilling firms the starch and proteins so the balls stay intact during rolling and frying.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, cream, nutmeg, flour, bread, egg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Turmericfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, cream, nutmeg, flour, bread, egg. 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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