Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Rice Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the dough
If using uncooked rice, cook 4 cups of rice with 1 cup of water until very tender.
Optionally, pass the cooked rice through a ricer or colander.
In a bowl, combine the boiled rice, lukewarm water, salt, sugar, flour, shortening, and yeast. Mix until a dough forms, adding more flour if necessary.
Knead the dough until smooth.
Rise and shape
Let the dough rise until doubled in size.
Shape the dough into a loaf.
Place the loaf in a greased pan.
Let it rise again until it has risen above the edge of the pan.
Bake
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 30-40 minutes or until golden brown.
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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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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Rice + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,744 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Boiled rice
- Adds moisture and a soft, tender crumb to the loaf.
- Flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure and holds the rise.
- Yeast
- Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and become airy.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning to the crust.
- Shortening
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and softens the texture.
The step that matters
Second rise in the pan. Letting the loaf rise until it clears the pan edge gives a light, well-risen crumb. Underproofed dough stays dense and can collapse or crack in the oven, while overproofed dough may sink during baking.
“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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