Why it works: Beans and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,017 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Flaked Bean Croquettes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Combine flaked beans, boiling water, salt, paprika, and beaten egg in a bowl.
Mix until well combined and shape into croquettes.
Roll each croquette in rice flakes.
Roll each croquette in beaten egg.
Roll each croquette again in rice flakes.
Fry
Heat oil in a pan.
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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Beans + ricetop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,017 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Egg + ricetop 28% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,350 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
-
Beans + eggtop 32% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,030 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Flaked beans
- Form the bulk of the croquette and give it a soft, starchy body.
- Egg
- Binds the mixture together so the croquettes hold their shape.
- Rice flakes
- Form a crisp outer coating that helps the croquettes brown when fried.
The step that matters
Shape and coat the croquettes firmly. Loose or thinly coated croquettes can break apart in hot oil. The beaten egg and rice flake layers need to fully cover the shaped mixture so the coating sets and crisps evenly during frying.
Swap the beans
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, rice):
- Sesamefits better
- Peanutfits about as well
- Almondfits about as well
- Beansthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, rice. 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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