Name: Rice and Cheese Balls
Ingredients: 2 cups soft steamed rice; 1 beaten egg; ½ cup grated cheese; a dash of cayenne pepper; ½ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg

Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Rice and Cheese Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Mix together the rice, beaten egg, grated cheese, cayenne pepper, salt, and nutmeg until well combined.
Form the mixture into small cylinders.

Coat and fry

Dip each cylinder in beaten egg, then roll in fine crumbs.
Fry the coated cylinders in deep fat 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.

Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together13,015 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Rice + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,779 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,379 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Rice + cheesetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together942 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together24,744 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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

Soft steamed rice: Forms the bulk of the ball and gives it a soft, tender interior.
Beaten egg: Binds the mixture together and helps the crumb coating stick.
Grated cheese: Adds richness and flavor, and helps bind the mixture as it melts.