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 minced chicken, bread crumbs, eggs, seasoning, and enough drawn butter to moisten.
Roll the mixture into pear-shaped balls.
Dip the balls into beaten eggs and then into bread crumbs.
Cook
Place them in a chafing dish and fry 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
- Minced chicken
- Provides the main body and savory flavor of the croquettes.
- Bread crumbs
- Add bulk and form a crisp, golden coating when fried.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture together and help the coating set.
- Drawn butter
- Moistens the mixture and adds richness and browning.
The step that matters
Frying until golden brown. Frying at a steady heat browns the bread crumb coating and sets the eggs, giving a crisp outside while the chicken inside heats through. Too little heat leaves the coating greasy and pale.
“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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