Name: Nut Croquettes
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon chopped parsley; a dash of cayenne pepper; 1 cup milk; 1 tablespoon softened butter; 2 tablespoons flour; 1 egg, beaten; bread crumbs for coating; fat for frying

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Nut Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Mix chopped parsley and cayenne pepper in a bowl.
In a double boiler, heat the milk.
Rub softened butter with flour until smooth; stir into hot milk.
Cook until thickened, then season lightly.
Combine thickened cream with the nut mixture and beaten egg; mix thoroughly.
Let the mixture cool, then form into rolls.
Dip each roll in bread crumbs, then beaten egg, and again in bread crumbs.
Fry in hot fat until golden brown.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 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

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, milk, butter, flour, egg, bread):

Nutmegfits about as well
Cinnamonfits about as well
Parsleythe original
Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, milk, butter, flour, egg, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.