Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Rice Croquettes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the rice base
Boil the rice in milk for 30 minutes.
Whip the butter, sugar, and salt into the hot rice.
When slightly cool, add the beaten egg yolks; if too stiff, add a little more milk.
Once cold, roll the mixture into small balls.
Coat and fry
Dip the balls in beaten eggs, then roll in cracker or bread crumbs.
Fry in a mixture of butter and lard until both sides are brown.
Serve very hot.
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.
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Rice + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,259 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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 croquette and, cooked in milk, gives a thick, starchy body that holds its shape.
- Milk
- Cooks the rice until soft and creamy, and adds moisture to the mixture.
- Butter
- Adds richness and flavour to the rice and helps the outside brown when frying.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and contributes to browning on the fried surface.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture together and form a coating that helps the crumbs stick.
The step that matters
Chill the mixture fully before shaping. Cooked rice is soft and sticky while warm. Chilling firms the starch so the balls keep their shape and do not fall apart in the frying fat.
“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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