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Preserve

Rice Balls

Rice balls made with cooked rice, minced meat, and tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Rice Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the rice

  1. Wash the rice thoroughly.

  2. Cook the rice in 2 quarts of cold water over low heat.

  3. Drain the rice in a colander, then rinse the rice with water.

Make the tomato sauce

  1. Cook the chopped onion in a pan until soft.

  2. Add the spices and tomatoes.

  3. Cook until everything is perfectly done.

  4. Rub the mixture through a wire sieve.

  5. Heat the tomato sauce with a little butter and salt to taste, thickening with cornstarch or flour as needed.

Shape and cook the rice balls

  1. Cut squares of cheesecloth about 8 inches square.

  2. Place 1 tablespoon of rice in the center of each square.

  3. Add 1 teaspoon of minced meat in the center of the rice and form a round ball by gathering the cloth corners together.

  4. Wrap a string around the loose ends of the cloth (no need to tie).

  5. Boil the rice balls in hot water for half an hour or more.

Serve

  1. Pour the tomato sauce onto a platter.

  2. Remove the cloth from the rice balls.

  3. Place the rice balls in the sauce, smooth side up.

  4. Ensure the sauce does not cover the rice balls completely.

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. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Rice + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 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 starchy center that holds its shape as the ball cooks.
Cold meat
Provides the savoury filling inside each rice ball.
Tomatoes
Form the acidic, flavourful base of the sauce.
Cornstarch or flour
Thickens the tomato sauce so it coats the rice balls.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the finished tomato sauce.

The step that matters

Wrapping the rice balls in cloth. The rice must be packed firmly around the meat with the cloth gathered tightly. Loose wrapping lets the rice break apart or the filling escape during the long boil, since cooked rice becomes sticky and binds only when pressed together.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, rice, tomato, onion, pepper, celery, butter):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, rice, tomato, onion, pepper, celery, butter. 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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