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Macaroni Croquettes

A fried cutlet made from macaroni, cheese, and egg, coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in a pan.

  2. Stir in the flour and milk, along with salt, pepper, and mustard until it forms a sticky lump.

  3. Add the cheese, cooked macaroni, and egg yolk, mixing well.

  4. Spread the mixture on a plate to cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Once cool, cut into quarters and shape into cutlets.

  2. Dip each cutlet in egg and breadcrumbs.

  3. Fry the cutlets in deep fat.

  4. Insert a small piece of uncooked macaroni into the end of each cutlet.

Garnish and serve

  1. Garnish with a tiny sprig of parsley.

  2. Serve hot, standing upright on a dish.

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

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

  3. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

  5. Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,805 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a sticky base that holds the mixture together.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the base and helps the flour cook into a roux.
Milk
Forms the liquid that the flour thickens into a creamy binding sauce.
Macaroni
Provides the bulk and chewy texture inside each cutlet.
Grated cheese
Adds flavour and helps bind the mixture as it cools and firms.
Egg yolk
Binds the mixture and adds richness to the filling.

The step that matters

Cooling the mixture before shaping. The mixture must cool and firm fully before it is cut and shaped. A warm, soft mixture will not hold its form and may slump or tear during dipping and frying.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, milk, cheese, egg, pepper. 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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