Name: Rice Cups
Ingredients: 1 pint rice; 3 pints milk; 1 walnut-sized piece of butter; 2 tablespoons rose or peach water

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Rice Cups

Ingredients

1 pint rice
3 pints milk
1 walnut-sized piece of butter
2 tablespoons rose or peach water

Directions

Make the rice

Cook the rice in the milk until soft.
When it boils, add the butter and rose or peach water.

Mould and serve

Wet the cups and fill them with the mixture.
Once cold, turn out the rice cups and serve with boiled custard or sugar and cream.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,374 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Rice + walnuttop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Walnut + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,832 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Milk + walnuttop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,236 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rice: Softens in the milk and sets into a firm, sliceable mass when cooled.
Milk: Cooks with the rice to create a creamy base that thickens as it cools.
Butter: Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the cooked rice.