Why it works: Bread and butter 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
Prepare
Combine cold boiled rice, beaten egg, sugar, and lemon peel in a bowl.
Form the mixture into small oval balls or cakes.
Coat and fry
Sprinkle the balls with bread crumbs.
Dip the balls in beaten egg.
Fry the croquettes in butter until golden brown.
Serve
Sprinkle the fried croquettes with sugar before serving.
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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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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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).
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 croquettes and holds their shape once cooled and pressed together.
- Beaten egg
- Binds the rice mixture together and, when used for dipping, helps the bread crumbs adhere.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a crisp outer coating that browns during frying.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the exterior brown during frying.
- Butter
- Conducts heat for frying and adds richness and browning to the outside.
The step that matters
Fry the croquettes in butter until golden brown. Frying over steady heat browns the crumb coating before the interior overheats. Too-high heat can scorch the sugar and crumbs while the centre stays cold, so the balls should be turned gently to colour evenly.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, egg, sugar, bread, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, egg, sugar, bread, butter. 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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