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Egg Plant and Macaroni Croquettes

A fried croquette made from stewed macaroni, eggplant, onions, eggs, cracker crumbs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Eggplant and olive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 943 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Egg Plant and Macaroni Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Grind the cold stewed macaroni with the eggplant and onions using a vegetable grinder.

  2. In a bowl, mix the ground mixture with the eggs, cracker crumbs, and salt until well combined.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape the mixture into desired forms and brush with flour.

  2. Fry in hot olive oil or cottonseed oil 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. Eggplant + olivetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together943 recipes

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

  2. Onion + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Onion + eggplanttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together870 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + olivetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,887 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Stewed macaroni
Provides the bulk and starch that hold the croquette together.
Eggs
Bind the mixture so it holds its shape when cooked.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb moisture and add body so the mixture can be shaped.
Eggplant
Adds soft, moist texture and mild flavor to the filling.
Onions
Add savory aroma and flavor to the filling.

The step that matters

Fry in hot oil until golden brown. If the oil is not hot enough, croquettes absorb excess oil and turn greasy, while a loosely bound mixture can break apart in the pan. Frying at a steady high heat sets the outside quickly and gives a crisp, browned crust.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (eggplant, egg, butter, olive):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against eggplant, egg, butter, olive. 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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