Name: Rice Griddle Cakes
Ingredients: 2 cups hot boiled rice; 1 teaspoon salt; 2 cups flour; 1 pint milk; 3 teaspoons baking powder; 2 eggs

Why it works: Rice and milk 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 Griddle Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
In another bowl, beat the egg yolks and add the milk.

Make the batter

Combine the dry ingredients with the milk mixture.
Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.

Cook

Cook on a griddle until golden brown on both sides.

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.

Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,374 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Rice + flourtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,611 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Flour: Provides the main structure that holds the pancake together as it cooks.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter, helping the pancakes rise and become light.
Eggs: Add structure and richness, and the beaten whites add lift.
Milk: Adds moisture that hydrates the flour and gives the batter its liquid base.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites gently. Beaten egg whites trap air that expands when heated and helps the pancakes rise. Stirring vigorously knocks that air out, leaving the pancakes dense and flat.

“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.

Rice Cake120 recipes

Rice Cream43 recipes

Rice Jelly42 recipes

Rice Pudding22 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Rice Griddle Cakes