Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Chicken Croquets
Ingredients
Directions
Make the filling
Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Add cream or milk, parsley, flour, salt, onion juice, and pepper; mix well.
Combine the mixture with cooked chicken until thickened.
Shape and fry
Shape the mixture into croquettes.
Dip each croquette in cracker or bread crumbs, then in beaten egg, and again in crumbs.
Fry in deep fat 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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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together25,843 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Thickens the cream and butter into a binding sauce that holds the chicken together.
- Egg
- Coats the croquettes so the crumbs stick and the outside sets when fried.
- Cream or milk
- Adds moisture and richness to the sauce that binds the chicken.
- Butter
- Adds fat and flavor to the base of the sauce.
The step that matters
Combine the mixture with cooked chicken until thickened. The sauce must cool and thicken enough to hold its shape; a thin mixture will spread and burst when shaped and fried.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, cream, parsley, flour, pepper, bread, egg):
- Shallotfits better
- Leekfits better
- Chivefits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, parsley, flour, pepper, 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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