Why it works: Egg and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Nut Croquettes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the filling
Cook the sweetbreads until tender, then let them cool.
Grind the cooled sweetbreads with ½ pound of blanched almonds.
Mix in 2 beaten eggs until well combined.
Shape and fry
Form the mixture into small croquettes and roll them in bread crumbs.
Heat oil in a deep pan and fry the croquettes until golden brown.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Almond + breadtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together858 recipes
Shared aroma: acetylpyrazine (roast).
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Egg + almondtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sweetbreads
- Provide the main body and rich, tender texture of the croquettes.
- Eggs
- Bind the ground mixture so the croquettes hold their shape when fried.
- Blanched almonds
- Add body and a nutty flavor to the filling.
The step that matters
Frying the croquettes until golden brown. Frying at a steady, hot temperature browns the bread crumb coating quickly, sealing the outside. If the oil is too cool, the croquettes absorb excess oil and can fall apart or turn greasy.
Swap the almond
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, bread):
- Peasfits better
- Pecansfits better
- Lima beansfits about as well
- Almondthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against 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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