Name: Chicken Croquettes
Ingredients: 4½ pounds boiled chicken, chopped very fine; 1½ cups chicken broth (liquor from boiling chicken); 1½ cups mashed potatoes; 3 eggs

Why it works: Chicken and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,756 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-decenal, which smells green, must. The science ↓

Chicken Croquettes

Ingredients

4½ pounds boiled chicken, chopped very fine
1½ cups chicken broth (liquor from boiling chicken)
1½ cups mashed potatoes
3 eggs

Directions

Combine the chopped chicken with the chicken broth to form a thick pulp.
Mix in the mashed potatoes until creamy.
Add the eggs and mix well until fully combined.

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.

Chicken + potatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,756 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).
Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,978 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Chicken + eggtop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,991 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).