Name: Chicken Croquettes
Ingredients: mushrooms; truffle; 1 egg yolk; salt to taste; caul (or caul fat); 2 teaspoons of the mixture per croquette; warm glaze or egg and breadcrumbs for coating; hot fat for frying; spinach or puree of green peas for serving

Why it works: Mushroom and truffle are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,900 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Chicken Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Shred the mushrooms and truffle into pieces about 1 inch long.
In a hot sauce, add the egg yolk and season to taste.
Stir in the shredded ingredients and cook on low heat for a few minutes, then set aside to cool.
Wash the caul in salt water, dry it, and cut it into 4-inch squares.
Place 2 teaspoons of the mixture in the center of each square, fold, and shape into rounds.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 6 minutes, or coat with egg and breadcrumbs and fry in hot fat.
Serve on a bed of spinach or puree of green peas, pouring sauce around.

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.

Mushroom + truffletop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,900 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Mushroom + spinachtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together778 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Truffle + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,604 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).
Mushroom + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,987 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg + spinachtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,323 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).