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 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
Boil 2 quarts of water and dissolve the yeast in it.
If using whole rice, boil it until soft, then strain and pass through a sieve.
Make the dough
In a bowl, combine the yeast water with some strong flour to create a sponge.
Once the sponge is ready, mix in the prepared rice, milk, coarse sea salt, sugar, and lard.
Gradually add more flour to form a medium dough.
Shape and bake
Let the dough rise, then shape it and place it in a pan to prove.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) 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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Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + ricetop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,744 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Yeast
- Produces gas that makes the dough rise and gives it a light texture.
- Rice flour or whole rice
- Forms the bulk of the dough and gives the loaf its main body and crumb.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and richness, softening the crumb and aiding browning.
- Lard
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and keeps the loaf soft.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and contributes sweetness and browning to the crust.
The step that matters
Gradually add more flour to form a medium dough. Adding flour in small amounts keeps the dough at a workable consistency. Too much flour makes it stiff, which limits yeast activity and gives a dense loaf.
“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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