Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Lard Croquettes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Boil the milk.
Stir the flour into the milk until it pulls away from the sides of the pot.
Add the eggs one at a time, stirring well after each addition.
Fry
Heat lard in a deep pan and fry spoonfuls of the mixture like doughnuts.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 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
- Flour
- Starch that thickens the milk and forms the body of the dough.
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add structure and richness as they set in the hot fat.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, giving the croquettes a tender flavor.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that hydrates the flour and gives a soft, moist interior.
The step that matters
Adding the eggs one at a time. Each egg must be fully incorporated before the next goes in. Adding them too quickly can cause the dough to separate or turn greasy and loose, so it will not hold its shape in the hot lard.
“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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