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Chicken Croquettes

Chicken croquettes are fried patties of boiled chicken, mashed potatoes, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Moisten the chopped chicken with the broth it was boiled in until it forms a thick pulp.

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

Shape and coat

  1. Mould the mixture into desired shapes, then dip in beaten egg and coat with flour.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry in hot oil or a mixture of lard and butter, a few at a time to maintain shape.

  2. Drain on a hot colander to remove excess fat.

  3. Serve in a heated dish garnished with cresses or 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. 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

Chicken
Forms the bulk of the croquette, providing the main meaty texture and substance.
Mashed potatoes
Binds the chicken pulp and adds softness and moisture to the interior.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and form a coating that helps the flour stick.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing flavour and a tender texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Frying in hot fat. Fat must be hot enough to set the egg coating quickly and brown it, so the croquettes hold their shape and do not absorb excess grease. Frying a few at a time keeps the oil temperature from dropping.

Swap the marjoram

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Marjoramthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, potato, egg, mustard, pepper, celery, butter. 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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