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Mushroom Croquettes

Mushroom croquettes are small, mushroom-based balls formed into a stiff paste with breadcrumbs, seasoned, and optionally mixed with ham or bacon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Mushroom Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Cut the mushrooms into dice.

  2. In a pan, melt the butter and cook the mushrooms until soft.

  3. While warm, mix in enough bread-crumbs to form a stiff paste.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, parsley, and nutmeg without losing the mushroom flavor.

  5. For a savory version, add chopped ham, bacon, or a little cooked game.

Shape and serve

  1. Let the mixture cool, then mold into balls the size of chestnuts.

  2. If serving with gravy, stew down the washed mushroom parings for flavor.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  4. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Flap mushrooms
Provide the main flavor and bulk, softened in butter until tender.
Bread-crumbs
Absorb moisture and bind the mushrooms into a stiff paste that holds its shape.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavor as the mushrooms cook down.

The step that matters

Cooking the mushrooms until soft. Mushrooms release a lot of water as they cook. If that moisture is not driven off, the mixture stays wet and the crumbs cannot form a stiff paste that holds its shape when molded.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, butter, bread, pepper, parsley, ham):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, butter, bread, pepper, parsley, ham. 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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