Why it works: Butter and milk 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 Gem Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine the soft boiled rice, flour, butter, salt, and beaten eggs.
Add milk gradually until the mixture reaches a batter consistency.
Cook
Preheat a griddle or grease gem pans.
Pour the batter onto the griddle or into the gem pans.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Soft boiled rice
- Forms the body of the cakes and gives them a soft, tender bulk.
- All-purpose flour
- Adds structure so the batter holds together while cooking.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and help set the cakes as they cook.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and helps the surface brown.
The step that matters
Cook until golden brown on both sides. Cooking over steady heat lets the surface brown and set before the interior is cooked through. Too hot a griddle browns the outside while the centre stays wet, and too cool a griddle leaves the cakes pale and soggy.
“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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