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Macaroni Croquettes

A fried croquette made from macaroni, milk, butter, flour, cheese, egg yolks, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Macaroni Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the macaroni

  1. Break the macaroni into pieces about 2 inches long.

  2. Boil the macaroni in a kettle of boiling water for 25 minutes.

  3. Drain the macaroni in a colander, then place it in cold water for 15 minutes.

  4. Drain again and cut the macaroni into pieces ½ inch long.

Make the custard

  1. Boil the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Rub the butter and flour together until smooth, then stir into the boiling milk.

  3. Stir continually until the mixture thickens, then add the cheese, macaroni, salt, pepper, and egg yolks.

  4. Cook for 1 minute longer, then turn out onto a plate to cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Once cool, form the mixture into cone-shaped croquettes.

  2. Roll the croquettes first in egg, then in bread crumbs.

  3. Fry in deep hot fat until golden brown.

  4. Serve with cream 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 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

Macaroni
Forms the bulk of the croquette, giving it body and a firm, chewy texture.
Milk
Makes the liquid base that thickens with flour into a smooth binding sauce.
Flour
Thickens the milk and helps the mixture hold its shape when cooled.
Eggs
Egg yolks enrich and bind the mixture, and the egg coating helps crumbs adhere.
Grated cheese
Adds savory flavor and helps bind the thickened mixture.

The step that matters

Stir continually until the mixture thickens. Flour must be fully cooked into the hot milk while stirred, or it stays lumpy and tastes pasty. The mixture also needs to cool thoroughly so it firms enough to shape without falling apart.

“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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