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Rice Croquettes

Rice croquettes are small fried balls made from boiled rice, butter, eggs, sugar, and salt, coated in flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Rice Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine the well-boiled rice, melted butter, beaten eggs, sugar, and salt.

  2. Mix until well combined, then form into small balls or patties.

  3. Roll each ball in flour to coat.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat lard in a deep pan until boiling.

  2. Drop the coated rice balls into the boiling lard and fry until golden brown.

  3. Remove and drain on paper towels.

  4. Serve hot.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

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

  5. Rice + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Well-boiled rice
Forms the bulk of the croquette and gives a soft, tender interior.
Beaten eggs
Bind the rice together so the balls hold their shape while frying.
Melted butter
Adds fat and richness, contributing to a tender interior.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the exterior brown during frying.
Flour
Forms a dry coating that helps the outside crisp and brown in the hot fat.
Boiling lard
Heat transfer medium that fries the outside to a golden, crisp crust.

The step that matters

Drop the coated rice balls into the boiling lard and fry until golden brown.. If the lard is not hot enough, the coating absorbs fat and turns greasy and the centre stays cold. A deep pan of properly hot fat seals the flour coating quickly, so the outside browns before the interior overcooks or falls 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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