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Rice Croquettes, Creole Style

Rice croquettes made with cooked rice, butter, Parmesan cheese, assorted meats, and mushrooms, formed, coated, and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parmesan cheese and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,199 recipes. Both carry methyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells apple, fatty. The science ↓

Rice Croquettes, Creole Style

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rice

  1. Cook the rice until firm and dry, then remove from heat.

  2. Add butter, Parmesan cheese, and the small pieces of mushrooms, beef tongue, truffles, and poultry. Mix thoroughly.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a buttered square tin pan, smoothing it to about an inch deep. Cover with buttered paper and let it cool.

Shape and coat

  1. Once cool, cut out pieces with a round cutter and roll them in grated Parmesan cheese.

  2. Dip each piece in beaten eggs, then roll in fresh bread crumbs to coat.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the croquettes in hot lard until golden brown, then drain and serve on a napkin, garnished with fried parsley.

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. Parmesan cheese + mushroomtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,199 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Rice + mushroomtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,515 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Cooked dry and firm, it binds the croquettes and holds their shape when cut.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory, salty flavor and helps the surface brown during frying.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, giving the rice mixture a softer, smoother texture.
Beaten eggs
Act as a binder so the bread crumbs adhere to each croquette.
Fresh bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavor and moisture to the rice mixture.

The step that matters

Cooling the rice mixture before cutting. The mixture must cool and firm up in the pan so the pieces hold their shape. Cutting it warm causes it to crumble or slump, and the coating then falls off during frying.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, butter, parmesan cheese, mushroom, egg, bread):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, butter, parmesan cheese, mushroom, egg, bread. 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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