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Macaroni Croquettes

Small croquettes made from boiled macaroni, ham, cheese, and a butter‑flour sauce, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parmesan cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,163 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Macaroni Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan.

  2. Add the flour and mix well, then add the stock and bring to a boil for three minutes.

  3. Stir in the chopped ham and macaroni, season well, and mix over the heat.

  4. Allow to cool slightly, then stir in the cheese and transfer to a plate.

Shape and fry

  1. Once cool, shape into small cork-shaped croquettes, coat each in egg and breadcrumbs.

  2. Fry in very hot deep fat until golden brown.

  3. Serve on lace paper and garnish with fried parsley.

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. Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Ham + mustardtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together747 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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 filling and gives the croquettes body and a soft, starchy texture.
Flour
Thickens the butter and stock into a binding sauce that holds the filling together.
Butter
Enriches the sauce with fat, adding flavour and a smooth mouthfeel.
Cooked ham
Adds savoury, meaty flavour to the filling.
Parmesan cheese
Adds salty, savoury depth and helps the filling taste rich.
Stock
Provides the liquid that is thickened with flour into the binding sauce.

The step that matters

Chill the filling until firm before shaping. A cooled, thickened filling holds its shape when coated and fried. If it is still warm or loose, the croquettes can slump or burst in the hot fat.

Swap the mustard

The recipe marks mustard as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, parmesan cheese, butter, flour, pepper):

  1. Asparagusfits about as well
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Mustardthe original
  4. Shallotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, parmesan cheese, butter, flour, 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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