Why it works: Cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Kice Croquettes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the mixture
Boil the rice in the usual way and drain carefully.
Stir in the beaten eggs, grated cheese, butter, and salt.
Add grated ham or chopped chicken, seasoning with salt and pepper.
Shape and fry
Form the mixture into balls the size of marbles.
Press the rice around each ball and fry as you would other croquettes.
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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Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,379 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Rice + cheesetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together942 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cheese + hamtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together303 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,645 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 bulk of the croquette and gives it a soft, tender body.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture together and set when heated, holding the shape.
- Grated cheese
- Adds savory flavor and helps bind the mixture as it melts.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture to the mixture.
- Ham or chicken
- Provides the savory meat filling and a substantial bite.
The step that matters
Shape the mixture into balls. The mixture is soft and moist, so it must be well bound and cohesive before shaping. Eggs set when heated and hold the croquette together, so the rice coating is needed to keep the filling from breaking out 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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