Name: Tri-Colored Autumn Rice Balls
Yield: 6
Ingredients: 3 cups prepared steamed sweet rice; ¼ cup toasted black sesame seeds , lightly crushed; 1 tablespoon sugar; 1 cup smooth Japanese bean paste (koshi-an), chilled; ½ cup roasted soybean powder (kinako) or toasted ground pecans

Why it works: Sesame and soybean share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 44 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Tri-Colored Autumn Rice Balls

Serves 6

Ingredients

3 cups prepared steamed sweet rice
¼ cup toasted black sesame seeds , lightly crushed
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup smooth Japanese bean paste (koshi-an), chilled
½ cup roasted soybean powder (kinako) or toasted ground pecans

Directions

Prepare

Mix sesame seeds and sugar in a small bowl.
Moisten your hands with water.
Divide warm rice into 12 equal portions.
Shape 4 portions into balls.
Moisten a clean dish towel and squeeze it dry.

Make the bean paste rice balls

Place 2½ tablespoons bean paste on towel and pat into a 4-inch circle. Place 1 rice ball in the centre of the bean paste circle. Use towel to mould bean paste around the rice ball.
Repeat the previous steps 3 more times.
Use another ½ cup of bean paste and the other 3 rice balls.
Place these on a nice serving tray.

Make the stuffed rice ovals and serve

Flatten the remaining eight rice portions.
Form the remaining bean paste into 8 balls (about 2 teaspoons per ball). Place a bean paste ball in the centre of each piece of flattened rice and shape the rice around it.
Mould these stuffed rice balls into oval shapes.
Roll 4 ovals in the sesame-sugar mixture. Roll the other 4 balls in the roasted soybean powder.
Add these to the serving tray.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

451Calories

7 gProtein

21 gFat

62 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 6 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 3 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Pecans	1 oz (28g / ~19 halves)	196
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Black Sesame Seed	not in our table	0
Bean	not in our table	0
Soybean	not in our table	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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.

Sesame + soybeantop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together44 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Rice + sesametop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together984 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Rice + soybeantop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together41 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Sesame + sugartop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,644 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Rice + sugartop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,744 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

Sweet rice: Forms the chewy, sticky mochi wrapper that holds the filling together.
Bean paste: Provides sweetness and a smooth, moist filling inside the rice.
Black sesame seeds: Adds a toasted, nutty aroma and a crisp coating on the outside.
Roasted soybean powder: Adds a toasted, nutty flavour and a dry coating that stops the rice sticking.

The step that matters

Moulding the rice around the bean paste. Sweet rice turns sticky and firm as it cools, so shaping it while still warm keeps the wrapper soft and stops it cracking or tearing over the filling. Moistened hands and towel keep the rice from sticking to you.

Swap the soybean

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

Mung beanfits better
Peanutfits better
Cashew nutfits better
Soybeanthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, sesame, sugar. 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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Tri-Colored Autumn Rice Balls