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Macaroni and Spaghetti Croquettes

Croquettes made from cooked macaroni or spaghetti mixed with cheese, paprika, and white sauce, then breaded and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,987 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Macaroni and Spaghetti Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the macaroni

  1. Break the macaroni or spaghetti into small pieces.

  2. Plunge the pieces into boiling salted water and cook until tender.

  3. Drain the cooked macaroni or spaghetti.

  4. Cool the drained macaroni or spaghetti.

  5. Cut the cooled macaroni or spaghetti into small rings.

Shape the croquettes

  1. In a bowl, mix the macaroni with cheese and paprika.

  2. Add just enough heavy white sauce to hold the mixture together.

  3. Cool the mixture.

  4. Mold the cooled mixture into croquettes.

Bread and fry

  1. Dip each croquette in breadcrumbs, then in beaten egg, then again in breadcrumbs.

  2. Fry the croquettes until golden brown.

  3. Serve the croquettes with tomato, poulette, or mushroom sauce.

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. Cheese + saucetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Cheese + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,253 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Sauce + eggtop 39% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,895 recipes

Sauce and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,895 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

Macaroni or spaghetti
Forms the bulk of the croquette and gives it a tender, starchy body once cooked.
Heavy white sauce
Adds moisture and binding so the mixture holds its shape when molded.
Egg
Coats the croquettes and sets during frying to bind the breadcrumb crust.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust when fried.
Cheese
Adds savory flavor and richness to the mixture.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture before molding. Cooling firms the starch and white sauce so the croquettes hold their shape. Warm mixture is soft and tends to slump or split during breading and frying.

“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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