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Croquettes

A fried chicken croquette made with bread, butter, egg, parsley, lemon, spices, flour, cracker meal, and lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Croquettes

Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Croquettes

7 or 8 croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Soak the bread in cold water and wring it dry in a cloth.

  2. Cut the chicken meat into thin strips and then into small dice.

  3. Mix the chicken, soaked bread, cold butter, egg, and parsley by rubbing together with a spoon.

  4. Add a squeeze of lemon, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  5. Shape the mixture into 7 or 8 croquettes.

Coat and fry

  1. Mix equal parts of flour and cracker meal in a bowl.

  2. Roll the croquettes in milk, then in the flour mixture, then back in milk, and again in the mixture.

  3. Heat hot lard in a deep saucepan and fry the croquettes until well done and browned.

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.

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.

  1. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  5. Chicken + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread
Soaked and wrung dry, it adds moisture and softness to the chicken filling.
Cold butter
Adds richness and fat that keeps the filling tender and juicy.
Egg
Binds the chicken and bread together so the croquettes hold their shape.
Chicken meat
Forms the main body of the filling, giving savory flavor and substance.
Flour
Creates a dry base that helps the milk and crumb coating stick evenly.
Cracker meal
Forms a crisp, golden crust when the croquettes are fried.

The step that matters

Frying the croquettes in hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy before it browns. Hot fat quickly sets the crust, sealing in moisture so the filling cooks through without falling apart.

“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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