Name: Ham and Rice Patties
Ingredients: potted ham; ½ tablespoon butter; milk (as needed); pepper (to taste); nutmeg (to taste); boiled rice (small quantity); chopped parsley (a little); 1 egg yolk

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Ham and Rice Patties

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

Mix potted ham with butter and enough milk to make a soft paste.
Season with pepper and nutmeg, then add boiled rice, chopped parsley, and the beaten egg yolk.

Fill and bake

Warm small patty cases and fill them with the mixture.
Place in a 400°F (200°C) oven until thoroughly hot.

Serve

Serve on a folded doily, garnished with 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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,062 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together13,015 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolk: Binds the mixture so the filling holds together when heated.
Potted ham: Provides the main savoury flavour and the bulk of the filling.
Butter: Adds fat that enriches the paste and keeps it moist.
Boiled rice: Adds body and soft texture to the filling.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, butter, milk, pepper, nutmeg, rice, egg):

Cinnamonfits better
Parsleythe original
Clovefits about as well
Marjoramfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, butter, milk, pepper, nutmeg, rice, 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.