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Chicken or Veal Croquettes

Small fried rolls of seasoned chicken or veal mixed with cream sauce, coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken or Veal Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Combine the chopped chicken or veal with salt, celery salt, cayenne pepper, and white pepper.

  2. Add enough thick cream sauce to make the mixture soft enough to handle.

  3. Spread the mixture on a shallow plate and let it cool.

Shape and coat

  1. Shape the cooled mixture into rolls.

  2. Roll each roll in fine bread crumbs, dip in beaten egg, then roll again in crumbs.

Fry and drain

  1. Fry the rolls in hot oil for one minute until golden brown.

  2. Drain the fried croquettes on paper towels.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,258 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

  5. Chicken + celerytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Chicken or veal
Forms the main filling and provides the savory protein body of the croquette.
Thick cream sauce
Binds the chopped meat into a soft mixture that holds its shape and stays moist.
Fine bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.
Egg
Acts as a binder so the bread crumbs adhere to the shaped rolls.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before shaping. A warm, soft mixture is too loose to hold its shape and can break apart during coating and frying. Cooling lets the cream sauce firm up so the rolls keep their form.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, celery, pepper, cream, sauce, bread, egg):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, celery, pepper, cream, sauce, 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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