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Chicken Croquettes

A seasoned chicken mixture with sweetbreads, calf brains, and aromatics formed into croquettes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,062 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Cook the chopped onion in butter for a few minutes, then strain.

  2. Mix the strained onion with the chicken, sweetbreads, and brains.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt ¼ pound butter, add cream, flour, and beaten egg yolks, stirring until thickened.

  2. Combine this mixture with the chicken mixture, adding nutmeg, red pepper, and salt to taste.

  3. If too thick, thin with sherry wine.

Chill

  1. Refrigerate for 2‑3 hours before forming into croquettes.

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. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the cream and butter sauce and bind the mixture as it cooks.
Flour
Thickens the butter and cream into a sauce that holds the mixture together.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the onion and the sauce.
Cream
Adds richness and body to the sauce, keeping the croquette mixture moist.
Sweetbreads
Add a soft, tender texture and rich flavour to the filling.

The step that matters

Chilling before forming. The mixture is soft and sticky when warm. Chilling firms the fat and starch so the croquettes hold their shape when shaped and cooked. Skipping this step can make them fall apart.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, butter, parsley, cream, flour, egg, nutmeg):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, parsley, cream, flour, egg, nutmeg. 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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