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Curry Balls

Curry balls are rice balls flavored with curry powder, bound with eggs, coated in breadcrumbs, and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Curry Balls

Why it works: Rice and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,379 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Curry Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Make the rice mixture

  1. Boil the rice in 1 pint of water, adding the butter, pepper, and salt.

  2. When the rice is dry and tender, mix in the curry powder.

  3. Beat 1 egg and use it to bind the rice mixture.

  4. Form the mixture into balls.

Coat and fry

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

  2. Fry the balls in oil or butter until golden brown.

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 + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Rice + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,350 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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 balls and sets into a firm, starchy mass when cooked dry.
Eggs
Bind the rice mixture together and form a coating that helps the breadcrumbs stick.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust that browns when fried.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the rice and helps the balls brown when fried.
Curry powder
Adds aroma and warm spice flavor to the rice.

The step that matters

Let the rice dry before shaping. Rice that is still wet or soft will not hold its shape and can make the balls fall apart or steam inside. Cooking it until dry and tender lets the starch set so the egg binder works and the balls hold together during frying.

“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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