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Dessert

Imperial Rice Cake

A baked cake made from rice, milk, almonds, eggs, butter, lemon rind, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Imperial Rice Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. In a pot, combine rice and milk. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat and let it absorb the milk.

  2. Once cooled, pour the rice into a dish and stir occasionally.

  3. Blend almonds with laurel water until smooth.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, whisk egg yolks and egg whites separately. Combine with butter, lemon rind, and sugar.

  2. Add the almond paste and rice, mixing well.

Bake

  1. Transfer the mixture into a buttered and sugared mold.

  2. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 45 minutes.

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

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

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

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

  4. Laurel + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,239 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  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

Whole rice
Provides the bulk and a tender, soft crumb as it absorbs the milk.
Blanched sweet almonds
Supply the moist, rich body and nutty flavour of the cake.
Egg yolks
Add richness, fat and binding that help the cake set.
Egg whites
Whisked separately to add lightness and help the cake rise and set.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a smooth, rich texture.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown during baking.

The step that matters

Whisking the egg whites separately. Whites beaten to a stable foam trap air that lifts the batter; if they collapse or are mixed in too vigorously, the cake comes out dense.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Walnutfits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Chickpeafits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, laurel, egg, butter, lemon, sugar. 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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