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Rice Balls

Rice balls made by mixing cooked rice with egg, shaping into egg-shaped balls, and frying in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 28% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,350 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

Rice Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine the cooked rice and egg in a bowl and mix well.

  2. Shape the mixture into egg-shaped balls.

Fry

  1. Heat lard in a pan until hot.

  2. Fry the balls in the hot lard until they are brown.

  3. Remove and drain on paper towels.

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 + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,350 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cooked rice
Forms the bulk of the balls, giving them body and a soft interior.
Egg
Binds the rice together so the balls hold their shape.
Lard
Conducts heat for frying and helps the outside turn brown and crisp.

The step that matters

Shaping the balls before frying. The mixture must be firm enough to hold its shape. If it is too wet or loose, the balls can fall apart in the hot fat.

“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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