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Macaroni Croquettes

A fried snack of boiled macaroni mixed with butter, flour, milk, mustard, 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 bread 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 ↓

Macaroni Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the flour and stir until combined.

  3. Gradually add the milk, cooking until thick.

  4. Stir in the mustard, salt, pepper, paprika, macaroni, and cheese.

  5. Spread the mixture on a platter to cool, then cut into rounds with a biscuit cutter.

Coat and fry

  1. Roll each piece in bread crumbs, then dip in beaten eggs, and coat again in bread crumbs.

  2. Fry in deep fat until golden brown, then drain on brown paper.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 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

Macaroni
Forms the bulk of the croquette and gives it a firm, substantial body.
Butter
Enriches the white sauce and adds richness to the base.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a sauce that holds the mixture together.
Milk
Liquid that, with the flour, forms the thick binding sauce.
Cheese
Adds savory flavor and helps the mixture set firmly when cooled.
Eggs
Bind the bread crumb coating so it adheres during frying.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture fully before cutting and coating. A thick sauce firms as it cools; if the mixture is still warm or soft, the rounds can lose their shape and the crumb coating may slide off or break open in the hot fat.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

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