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Macaroni Croquettes

A fried ball of macaroni, cheese, and spices coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Macaroni Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the white sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.

  2. Add flour, salt, and paprika, stirring constantly until smooth.

  3. Gradually add milk, stirring until thickened.

  4. Stir in cheese and macaroni cut into ½ inch pieces.

  5. Chill the mixture until completely cold.

Shape, coat and fry

  1. Form the mixture into balls.

  2. Dip each ball in breadcrumbs, then in the egg mixture, and again in breadcrumbs.

  3. Fry in hot oil until golden brown.

  4. Drain on paper towels and serve on a folded napkin 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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

Butter
Enriches the sauce and adds richness and flavour to the filling.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a sauce that holds the croquettes together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving a smooth, creamy binder.
Macaroni
Provides the bulk and chewy texture inside the croquettes.
Cheese
Adds savoury flavour and helps the filling bind when cooled.
Egg
Binds the breadcrumb coating so it sticks and forms a crisp shell.

The step that matters

Chill the mixture until completely cold. A cold, firm filling holds its shape when formed and fried. If it is still warm or soft, the balls can crack or collapse in the hot oil.

Swap the parsley

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, cheese, 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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