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 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 the rice until soft.
Mix and bake
While the rice is hot, add the butter, milk, cornmeal, flour, eggs, and salt. Mix well until combined.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for one hour. The bread should be about two inches thick.
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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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
- Rice
- Adds body and a soft, moist crumb as it breaks down into the batter.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and set during baking to give the bread structure.
- Cornmeal
- Provides the grainy texture and bulk that gives the bread its body.
- Milk
- Supplies moisture and helps the batter bake into a tender, set loaf.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender crumb.
- Flour
- Helps bind the batter and gives the bread more structure.
The step that matters
Add the ingredients while the rice is hot. Hot cooked rice softens and blends more easily into the batter and helps the butter melt and disperse evenly. Letting the rice cool first can leave lumps and uneven texture.
“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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