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Chicken Croquettes

A fried patty of boiled chicken mixed with mashed potatoes, eggs, mustard, marjoram, celery, butter, and coated in cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Chicken Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Moisten the chopped chicken with the boiling liquid until it forms a thick pulp.

  2. Mix in the mashed potatoes, eggs, mustard, marjoram, salt, pepper, celery, and softened butter.

  3. Shape the mixture into forms or balls.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each piece in beaten egg, then coat with cracker crumbs.

  2. Fry in boiling lard 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.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Marjoram + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together615 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Potato + marjoramtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together135 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Boiled chicken
Forms the bulk of the croquettes, giving them their meaty body and shape.
Mashed potatoes
Adds softness and moisture, helping the mixture hold together while shaping.
Eggs
Bind the mixture so it holds its shape, and form the coating that helps crumbs stick.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the inside a tender, moist texture.
Cracker crumbs
Create a crisp, browned outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Fry in boiling lard until golden brown. The fat must be hot enough to crisp the crumb coating quickly. If the oil is too cool, the croquettes absorb grease and turn soggy before the crust sets.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, potato, egg, marjoram, pepper, celery, milk):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, potato, egg, marjoram, pepper, celery, milk. 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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