Why it works: Wheat and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 423 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓
Rice Cakes
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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Make the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Stir in the cream and lemon zest.
In a separate bowl, combine the wheat flour, rice flour, and baking powder.
Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet mixture to form a thin batter.
Bake
Grease patty pans and pour the batter into them.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
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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Wheat + ricetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together423 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Lemon + ricetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Provide structure and binding, and help the cakes set as they bake.
- Wheat flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the cakes their main structure.
- Rice flour
- Adds a lighter, more delicate crumb alongside the wheat flour.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and rich flavour.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown in the oven.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the cakes rise in the oven.
The step that matters
Gradually mixing the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Overmixing once the flour is added develops too much gluten in the wheat flour, which makes the cakes tough and dense. Mix only until the batter is just combined.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, wheat, flour, sugar, cream, egg, rice):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, wheat, flour, sugar, cream, egg, rice. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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