Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Pancakes, Rice
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Boil the rice in a little water until it becomes jelly-like.
Let the rice cool, then mix in the cream, beaten eggs, salt, and nutmeg.
Stir in the melted butter and enough flour to create a smooth batter.
Fry
Fry the batter in a small amount of lard or dripping.
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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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Rice + nutmegtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,779 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,920 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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
- Cooked to a jelly-like consistency, it gives the batter body and a soft, tender bite.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and set during frying, giving the pancakes structure.
- Cream
- Adds richness and moisture, keeping the pancakes tender.
- Butter
- Adds fat for flavour and a rich texture in the finished pancakes.
- Flour
- Thickens the batter so it holds together to form a smooth, fryable batter.
The step that matters
Letting the rice cool before mixing in the eggs. If the rice is still hot when the beaten eggs go in, the eggs can scramble or cook unevenly, leaving lumps in the batter instead of a smooth, cohesive mixture.
“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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