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Rich Croquettes

A fried rice-based dish formed into cylinders, cooked with milk, butter, sugar, cinnamon or nutmeg, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,137 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Rich Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the rice mixture

  1. In a saucepan, heat the milk with butter and sugar until boiling.

  2. Stir in the boiled rice, cinnamon or nutmeg, and salt; mix well and bring to a boil again.

  3. Remove from heat and add the beaten egg; mix until combined.

Shape and fry

  1. Transfer to a plate to cool, then form into cylinders.

  2. Fry the cylinders in hot butter until golden brown.

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 + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  3. Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Boiled rice
Forms the bulk of the croquettes and gives them a firm, sliceable body once cooled.
Egg
Binds the rice mixture so the cylinders hold their shape when fried.
Milk
Cooks with the rice to add moisture and a soft, creamy texture.
Butter
Enriches the mixture and browns the outside of the croquettes during frying.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the exterior brown in the pan.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture before shaping. The mixture is soft and sticky while warm. Cooling lets the egg set and the starch firm up, so the cylinders keep their shape and do not tear or collapse in hot fat.

“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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