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 Op Rice
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the rice
Wipe 7 ounces of rice clean with a dry cloth and place it in a clean saucepan.
Pour 1 quart of milk over the rice and let it swell gently over low heat, stirring often to prevent sticking.
When the rice is half cooked, stir in 5 ounces of sugar and 6 finely beaten bitter almonds, along with the rind of ½ lemon.
Simmer until the rice is soft, thick, and dry.
Spread the cooked rice on a dish and let it cool.
Shape and coat
Once cool, roll the rice into small balls.
Dip each ball into beaten egg.
Coat each ball with fine bread crumbs.
Fry and serve
Fry the croquettes in fresh butter until golden brown.
Drain on a sieve covered with a soft cloth or white paper before serving.
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.
-
Rice + almondtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,456 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked 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
- Swells in milk and sets into a thick, dry mass that holds the croquettes together.
- Milk
- Cooks into the rice, giving it a soft, creamy texture as it swells.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the rice and adds to its tender, moist body.
- Bitter almonds
- Add a distinctive almond aroma and flavour to the rice.
- Beaten egg
- Forms a binding coat that helps the bread crumbs adhere and brown evenly.
- Bread crumbs
- Create a crisp, golden browned outer crust when fried.
The step that matters
Simmer until the rice is soft, thick, and dry. Rice must lose its excess moisture before cooling; if it stays wet, the balls will be soft and fall apart when coated and fried.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, sugar, almond, egg, bread, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits better
- 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.
More rice croquettes recipes
You might also like
Lemon Rice Pudding19 recipes
Lemon Cake228 recipes
Bread Pudding153 recipes
Lemon Ice147 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.