Why it works: Milk and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,374 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Rice Griddle Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine milk, baking powder, rice, salt, and sugar.
Add flour gradually until the mixture forms a thin batter.
Cook and serve
Heat a griddle over medium heat and pour batter to form large cakes.
Cook until golden brown on both sides.
Stack the cakes on a plate, butter each layer, and cut into wedges to serve.
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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Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Rice + flourtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,611 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Milk
- Adds liquid so the rice and flour form a pourable batter.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas that lifts the cakes so they rise and stay light.
- Well-cooked rice
- Provides body and a tender texture within the batter.
- Flour
- Thickens the batter and gives the cakes structure as they set.
- Sugar
- Adds mild sweetness and helps the surface brown in the pan.
The step that matters
Cook until golden brown on both sides. Medium heat lets the centre set before the outside browns. Too hot a griddle burns the surface and leaves the inside wet and doughy.
“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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