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Chicken Croquettes

Chicken croquettes are small fried balls of chicken and mashed potato mixture coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped chicken and mashed potatoes.

  2. Add butter, pepper, salt, celery or nutmeg, egg, and cream or milk. Mix well.

  3. Form the mixture into balls.

Coat and fry

  1. Roll each ball in egg.

  2. Coat each ball with bread crumbs.

  3. Fry in hot oil until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Serve on a napkin.

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

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

  2. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 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. Chicken + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,756 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  5. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked chicken
Provides the main protein and bulk of the croquettes.
Mashed potatoes
Binds the chicken and adds moisture and a soft interior texture.
Egg
Binds the mixture and, as a coating, helps the crumbs adhere.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned outer crust when fried.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the filling.

The step that matters

Frying in hot oil until golden brown. If the oil is not hot enough, the croquettes absorb oil and turn greasy before the crumb crust sets. If it is too hot, the outside browns before the filling heats through. Steady medium-high heat gives a crisp crust and a hot center.

Swap the celery

The recipe marks celery as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, potato, butter, pepper, egg, cream, bread):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, potato, butter, pepper, egg, cream, bread. 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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