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Cheese Rice Balls

Cheese rice balls are fried balls of boiled rice stuffed with ham and mozzarella, coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,526 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Cheese Rice Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Shape the balls

  1. Mix the rice and beaten egg together and form into balls.

  2. Flatten each ball in your palm, place a strip of ham and a strip of cheese on top, then close the ball to conceal the filling. Continue until all the rice is used.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip the balls in the remaining beaten egg, then coat with breadcrumbs.

  2. Fry in hot olive oil until golden brown, then drain before serving.

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. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Rice + hamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together477 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Rice + mozzarella cheesetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together128 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Ham + mozzarella cheesetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together23 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Mozzarella cheese + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together879 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

Rice
Forms the bulk of each ball and holds the filling inside.
Egg
Binds the rice together and helps the breadcrumbs stick to the outside.
Mozzarella cheese
Melts during frying to give a gooey centre.
Ham
Adds savoury flavour to the filling.
Breadcrumbs
Create a crisp, browned outer coating when fried.

The step that matters

Close the balls fully around the filling. If the rice is not sealed over the ham and cheese, the cheese can leak out in the hot oil. A tight seal keeps the filling melted inside the rice while the outside browns.

“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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