Why it works: Corn and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,324 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Corn Croquettes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the filling
Combine corn, onion juice, pepper, and salt in a double boiler and heat until hot.
Mix flour and butter together to form a paste and add the paste to the corn mixture.
Cook for five minutes.
Shape and finish
Remove from heat and stir in the beaten egg white.
Shape the mixture into croquettes.
Finish as you would with other croquettes.
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.
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Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,324 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + oniontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,205 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Corn
- Provides the main body and sweet flavor of the croquettes.
- Flour
- Thickens the mixture into a paste that holds its shape.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richer flavor and a softer texture.
- Egg white
- Binds the mixture when stirred in and helps the croquettes hold together.
The step that matters
Cooking the paste into the corn mixture. Cooking the flour and butter paste with the corn for five minutes lets the starch swell and thicken the mixture, so it becomes firm enough to shape without falling apart.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, pepper, flour, butter, egg):
- Capsicumfits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Chivefits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against corn, pepper, flour, butter, egg. 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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