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Tccrkey, Croquettes

A fried croquette made with minced turkey, ham or bacon, shallots, butter, flour, egg yolks, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Tccrkey, Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a stewpan, melt the butter and sauté the shallots until soft.

  2. Add the flour and mix well.

  3. Stir in the minced turkey and ham or bacon.

  4. Pour in about ½ cup of gravy made from turkey bones and trimmings.

  5. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat and stir in the egg yolks.

  6. Let the mixture cool, then shape it into small croquettes.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each croquette in beaten egg and coat with bread crumbs.

  2. Fry in hot oil until golden brown, about 8 minutes.

  3. Garnish with parsley stems and serve.

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. Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

Cold turkey
Provides the main body and meaty flavour of the croquettes.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour when the shallots are softened.
Flour
Thickens the gravy and helps the mixture hold its shape.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and set it firmly when heated.
Beaten egg
Helps the bread crumbs adhere to the outside of each croquette.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns when fried.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before shaping. Cooling firms the mixture after the egg yolks are stirred in, so the croquettes keep their shape. Shaping a hot, soft mixture makes it slump and tear, and it can break apart in the hot oil.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, ham, shallot, butter, flour, egg, bread):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, ham, shallot, butter, flour, egg, bread. 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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