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Macaroni and Cheese Croquettes

A fried croquette made from macaroni, cheese, and a seasoned sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 and Cheese Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Boil the macaroni until tender.

  2. Chop the macaroni finely.

  3. Melt the butter in a pan.

  4. Stir in the flour smoothly.

  5. Add the milk.

  6. Let the mixture boil until the sauce leaves the sides of the pan, stirring constantly.

  7. Add the macaroni, cheese, pepper, salt, a small amount of mustard, and the yolk of one egg to the sauce. Stir everything together.

  8. Heat until hot but do not boil.

  9. Spread the mixture on a plate to cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Beat the remaining egg slightly.

  2. Once cool, shape the mixture into croquettes using a little flour.

  3. Dip the croquettes into the egg.

  4. Roll the croquettes in bread crumbs.

  5. Fry the croquettes in clarified fat until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Place the croquettes upright in a dish.

  2. Stick a small piece of uncooked macaroni into the narrow end of each croquette.

  3. Serve on a folded cloth.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Cheese + milktop 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. Flour + milktop 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
Provides the bulk and starchy body that gives the croquettes their substance.
Cheese
Adds rich flavour and helps the sauce set firm as it cools.
Butter
Enriches the flour roux and adds fat for smooth, rich flavour.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a sauce that holds the croquettes together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it creaminess and body.
Eggs
Bind the mixture, and the beaten egg helps bread crumbs adhere for a crisp coating.

The step that matters

Let the mixture boil until the sauce leaves the sides of the pan. Cooking the flour and milk sauce thoroughly with constant stirring thickens it and cooks out raw flour taste. Under-thickened sauce will be too soft to shape and may burst or fall apart during 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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