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Turkey Croquettes of

A fried croquette made from minced turkey, ham or bacon, shallots, butter, flour, eggs, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Turkey Croquettes of

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a stewpan, melt the butter and add the minced shallots.

  2. Stir in the flour and mix well.

  3. Add the minced turkey and ham or bacon, along with about ½ cup of gravy made from the bones.

  4. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat and stir in the egg yolks.

Shape and fry

  1. Allow the mixture to cool, then shape it into small croquettes.

  2. Dip each croquette in the beaten egg, then coat with bread crumbs.

  3. Fry in hot oil until golden brown, about 8 minutes.

  4. Garnish with parsley stems and serve.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

Cold turkey
Provides the main body of the croquettes and their savory meaty flavor.
Butter
Enriches the flavor and helps form the base of the filling with the shallots.
Flour
Thickens the butter and shallots so the filling holds together when cooled and shaped.
Egg yolks
Bind the filling and help it set firm once cooled and cooked.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp golden coating that browns during frying.
Ham or bacon
Adds salty, smoky flavor to the filling.

The step that matters

Cooling before shaping. Stirring in the egg yolks after boiling and then cooling lets the filling firm up. If it is shaped while still warm, the croquettes will be soft and may fall apart in the hot oil.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, ham, shallot, butter, flour, egg, bread):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, ham, shallot, butter, flour, egg, bread. 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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