Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Kice and Meat Croquettes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the mixture
Boil the milk in a saucepan.
Add the meat, rice, salt, and pepper to the boiling milk.
Once it boils, stir in the beaten egg and cook for 1 minute.
Let the mixture cool, then shape it into croquettes.
Coat and fry
Dip each croquette in beaten egg and breadcrumbs.
Fry the croquettes until golden brown.
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 + milktop 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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Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,379 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Rice + meattop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,481 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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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
- Boiled rice
- Bulks out the mixture and gives the croquettes body so they hold their shape.
- Cooked meat
- Provides the savoury filling and flavour at the centre of each croquette.
- Milk
- Moistens the rice and meat, giving a soft binding mixture that thickens as it heats.
- Egg
- Binds the mixture when cooked and gives the coating a golden surface when fried.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, contributing flavour and a tender texture.
The step that matters
Let the mixture cool before shaping. A hot, soft mixture is too loose to hold its shape. Cooling lets the starch and egg set so the croquettes keep their form when coated and fried.
“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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