Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Rice Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mixture
Break the cold boiled rice with a fork.
In a bowl, combine the rice, bread crumbs, milk, eggs, salt, and sugar. Mix until well combined.
Fry
Heat butter in a frying pan over medium heat.
Spoon the mixture into the pan and brown nicely 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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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + buttertop 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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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Rice + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,259 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cold boiled rice
- Forms the bulk of the cakes and gives them a tender, chewy texture.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb the milk and eggs so the mixture holds together when shaped and fried.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture so the cakes hold their shape while cooking.
- Milk
- Adds moisture that softens the bread crumbs and keeps the cakes from drying out.
The step that matters
Brown the cakes on both sides. Medium heat with butter lets the surface brown through the Maillard reaction, adding color and savory flavor. Too high a heat can scorch the butter and outside before the centre sets.
“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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