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Prawns, Croquettes

Prawns, Croquettes are fried croquettes made from minced prawns, butter, spices, stale bread, Bechamel sauce, eggs, and anchovy essence.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Prawns, Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Chop the prawns finely, then pound them until smooth.

  2. In a bowl, mix the pounded prawns with butter, mace, salt, cayenne, and anchovy essence.

  3. Soak the stale bread in cream, then add to the mixture.

Bind and shape

  1. Stir in Bechamel sauce and egg yolks until well combined.

  2. Whip the egg white until stiff, then fold into the mixture gently.

  3. Shape the mixture into croquettes and fry 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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Anchovy + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Prawns
Provide the main flavour and the bulk of the filling.
Stale white bread
Soaked in cream, it adds body and moisture to the filling.
Egg yolks
Enrich the mixture and help bind it into a cohesive filling.
Egg white
Whipped to stiffness, it lightens the mixture and adds loft.
Bechamel sauce
Adds moisture and thickness so the mixture holds its shape.

The step that matters

Folding in the whipped egg white. Stiffly whipped egg white traps air that gives lightness. Folding gently keeps that air in; vigorous stirring deflates the foam and leaves the croquettes dense.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, anchovy, bread, cream, sauce, egg):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, anchovy, bread, cream, sauce, 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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