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Macaroni-cheese Croquettes

A fried snack of cooled macaroni and cheese coated in egg and cracker crumbs, served with tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,896 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Macaroni-cheese Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare macaroni and cheese and let it cool in a square pan.

  2. Once cold, cut into slices.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each slice in beaten egg, then coat with cracker crumbs.

  2. Fry in hot oil until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Serve with tomato sauce.

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. Cheese + tomatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,896 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Cheese + saucetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Cheese + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,253 recipes

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

  5. Egg + tomatotop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,890 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

Macaroni and cheese
Chilled and set, it holds its shape so the slices can be coated and fried.
Egg
Beaten egg acts as a binder that helps the cracker crumbs stick to the slices.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns when fried.

The step that matters

Let the macaroni and cheese cool fully before slicing. Warm macaroni and cheese is soft and loose, so it breaks apart when cut and coated. Chilling firms the starch and cheese so the slices keep their shape through dipping and frying.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, egg, sauce):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Welsh onionfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, egg, sauce. 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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