Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Rice Croquettes
Ingredients
Directions
Form the croquettes
In a bowl, mix cold boiled rice with butter and 1 beaten egg.
With floured hands, roll the mixture into oval balls.
Coat and fry
Dip each ball in the second beaten egg, then coat with bread or cracker crumbs.
Fry the croquettes in hot lard until golden brown.
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.
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Rice + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,259 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,645 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cold boiled rice
- Forms the bulk of the croquette and gives it a soft, starchy interior.
- Beaten egg
- Binds the rice mixture so the balls hold their shape while frying.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender crumb inside.
- Bread or cracker crumbs
- Form a crisp outer coating that browns in the hot fat.
- Lard
- Frying fat that transfers heat quickly and browns the crumb coating.
The step that matters
Frying in hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the croquettes absorb more grease and the coating can turn heavy or fall off. Hot fat sets the crumb crust quickly, sealing the outside so the golden crust forms before the interior becomes greasy.
“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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