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, well-cooked rice, salt, baking powder, egg, and sugar.
Add flour gradually until you achieve a thick batter.
Cook the cakes
Heat a griddle over medium heat and grease lightly.
Pour batter onto the griddle to form cakes and cook until golden brown on both sides.
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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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Rice + flourtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,611 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as the cakes set.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the cakes rise and turn light.
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the thick batter together.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and loosens the batter to a pourable thickness.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown evenly on the griddle.
The step that matters
Cook until golden brown on both sides. Medium heat lets the centre set before the outside browns too far. Too hot a griddle scorches the surface while the inside stays raw and wet.
“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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