Why it works: Rice and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,374 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Rice Croquettes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the rice
Wash the rice thoroughly in several waters.
Put the rice in a saucepan with the water, milk, and salt; boil until absorbed, then set aside to cool.
Shape and coat
Grate or roll the bread into fine crumbs.
Beat the egg yolks.
Form the rice into 14 croquettes with a smooth surface.
Roll each croquette in the egg and then in the bread crumbs.
Fry and serve
Heat the lard in a frying pan.
Test the lard's heat with a bit of bread, then fry the croquettes until golden brown.
Lift the basket to drain, then serve on a platter or in a vegetable dish.
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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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Rice + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,259 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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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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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rice
- Absorbs the milk and water as it boils, forming a soft mass that holds its shape when shaped.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and richness, making the cooked rice tender and creamy.
- Egg yolks
- Bind the rice and help the bread crumbs adhere to the croquettes.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp outer coating that browns when fried.
- Lard
- Conducts heat for frying, browning the crumb coating and crisping the surface.
The step that matters
Test the lard's heat with a bit of bread. If the fat is too cool, croquettes absorb grease and turn heavy; if too hot, the crumb coating browns before the rice heats through. A bread test shows when the fat is hot enough to sizzle steadily.
“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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