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Croquettes of Mam

A fried croquette made from ham, chicken, shallot, egg, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Croquettes of Mam

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Bring the stock to a boil, sprinkle in the flour, stir, and cook until boiling, then simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  2. Melt the butter in a saucepan, fry the shallot until lightly browned, then add the chicken and ham, stirring and cooking for a few minutes.

  3. Add the flour and stock, then one egg, season to taste, and stir over the heat for about 5 minutes to thicken the eggs.

Cool and shape

  1. Spread the mixture on a plate to cool.

  2. Once cool, shape the mixture into corks or balls, coat with the remaining egg and breadcrumbs, and fry in hot fat until golden-brown.

Serve

  1. Drain well and serve hot, garnished with fried parsley.

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. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

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

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Butter + shallottop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour (in the method)
Thickens the stock into a stiff base that holds the croquette mixture together.
Eggs
Bind the mixture as it heats and form a coating that crisps when fried.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and helps the shallot brown gently at the start.
Ham (in the method)
Provides the savoury meaty flavour that defines the croquette filling.
Shallot
Adds a mild aromatic sweetness after it is softened and lightly browned.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture fully before shaping. A warm, soft mixture slumps and will not hold its shape. As it cools, the starch thickens and the egg sets, giving a firm paste that can be shaped and will stay intact in hot fat.

Swap the shallot

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

  1. Shallotthe original
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, egg, parsley. 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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