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Rice Croquettes

Small fried rice cakes seasoned with lemon peel, coated in egg yolk and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,366 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

Rice Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Shape the croquettes

  1. Season the cooked rice with grated lemon peel.

  2. Mould the rice into small shapes using a wine glass.

  3. Roll each shape in the egg yolk, then in bread crumbs.

  4. If desired, mix the egg white into the rice before moulding.

Fry

  1. Fry the croquettes lightly in hot oil until golden brown.

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. Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,366 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  2. Rice + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,259 recipes

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

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Bread + lemontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,445 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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

Cooked rice
Forms the body of the croquette and holds its shape when moulded.
Egg yolk
Binds the coating so the bread crumbs stick to the shape.
Egg white
Helps bind the rice and hold its shape while it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, golden-brown outer crust when fried.
Grated lemon peel
Adds a bright citrus aroma to the rice.

The step that matters

Frying in hot oil until golden brown. Hot oil sets the crumb crust quickly, which limits oil absorption and keeps the croquettes from turning greasy. Oil that is too cool soaks in, while oil that is too hot browns the crumbs before the rice heats through.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, egg, bread):

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Pumpkinfits about as well
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, 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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