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Rice Cutlets

Rice cutlets are fried patties made from cooked rice, cold meat, onion, breadcrumbs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Rice Cutlets

Why it works: Rice and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,374 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Rice Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Boil the rice and strain it.

  2. Chop the cold meat and onion finely.

  3. Mix the chopped meat and onion with the rice.

  4. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the mixture and mix well.

  5. Add just enough milk to make a paste.

  6. Let the mixture set on a plate.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape the mixture into cutlet shapes.

  2. Dip each cutlet in beaten egg and then in bread crumbs.

  3. Fry in hot oil until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Serve with tomato sauce.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 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

Rice
Forms the bulk of the cutlet and gives it a soft, binding body once cooked.
Cold meat
Supplies the main filling and flavour, and is easier to chop finely when cold.
Onion
Adds moisture and aroma that carry through the mixture during frying.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust on the outside when fried.
Egg
Binds the breaded coating so the crumbs adhere to the cutlet during frying.

The step that matters

Add just enough milk to make a paste. Too much milk makes the mixture wet and loose, so cutlets fall apart in hot oil. The mixture should hold its shape when pressed, with the starch and proteins binding it together.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, meat, bread, pepper, milk, egg):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, meat, bread, pepper, milk, egg. 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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