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Croquettes of Rice

A fried ball of cooked rice mixed with sugar, almonds, and lemon rind, coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,456 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Croquettes of Rice

Ingredients

Directions

Make the rice

  1. In a clean saucepan, combine rice and milk. Cook gently over low heat, stirring often to prevent sticking or burning.

  2. When the rice is half cooked, add sugar, finely beaten almonds, and lemon rind. Continue cooking until the rice is soft, thick, and dry.

  3. Spread the cooked rice on a dish and let it cool. Once cooled, roll it into small balls.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each ball into beaten egg, then coat with fine bread crumbs.

  2. Fry the croquettes in fresh butter until light brown, about 5 to 7 minutes.

  3. Drain on a sieve covered with a soft cloth or blotting paper. Serve immediately on a hot dish.

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. Rice + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rice
Cooks into a thick, starchy base that holds the croquettes together when shaped.
Milk
Cooks with the rice to form a soft, creamy mass that becomes thick and dry.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the croquettes brown lightly when fried.
Eggs
Bind the coating so the bread crumbs adhere to each ball.
Fine bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when the croquettes are fried.
Fresh butter
Fat for frying that browns the outside and adds rich flavour.

The step that matters

Cooking the rice until thick and dry. If the rice is still wet, the balls will not hold their shape and may fall apart or soak up oil during frying. Cooking gently and stirring often prevents sticking and scorching while the starch gelatinises and the mixture firms.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, sugar, almond, egg, bread, butter):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, sugar, almond, egg, bread, 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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