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Bice Croquettes

Rice croquettes made with rice, milk, sugar, flavoring, egg yolk, bread crumbs, and fried in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Bice Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the rice

  1. Combine the rice, milk, and sugar in a saucepan over low heat.

  2. Cook until the rice swells and absorbs all the milk, then stir in a few drops of your chosen flavoring.

  3. Allow the rice to cool, then form it into small round balls.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each ball in egg yolk and coat with bread crumbs.

  2. Fry the croquettes in boiling lard for about 10 minutes, turning to brown evenly.

  3. Drain excess oil by placing them on a cloth for a minute or two.

Serve

  1. Serve on a white doily, optionally adding a small piece of jam in the center of each croquette.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Rice + vanillatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,352 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Swells as it cooks, forming the soft, starchy body of the croquette.
Milk
Liquid that the rice absorbs, giving the filling its creamy moisture.
Pounded sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cooked rice mixture hold a pleasant flavor.
Egg yolk
Acts as a binder and helps the bread crumbs adhere to the outside.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns during frying.

The step that matters

Cooking the rice until it has absorbed all the milk. If the rice is undercooked or the mixture is too wet, the balls will not hold their shape and may burst or fall apart in the hot lard. The mixture must be thick enough to cool and form firm balls.

“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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