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Dessert

Rice Cheesecakes

A baked rice-based cheesecake made with butter, powdered sugar, eggs, cream, spices, and almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,437 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Rice Cheesecakes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter in a bowl.

  2. Add the powdered sugar, ground rice, grated rind, and beaten eggs, then mix well.

Thicken the mixture

  1. In a saucepan, simmer the cream with mace and cinnamon until flavored.

  2. Gradually stir in the ground rice off the heat.

  3. Return to heat until smooth.

  4. Let it cool slightly.

  5. Mix in the 6 beaten eggs.

  6. Stir until thick.

  7. Add the pounded almonds, then mix well.

Bake

  1. Line patty pans with pastry.

  2. Fill them three-quarters full with the mixture.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 20 minutes.

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.

  1. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Rice + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Mace + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the filling and bind it into a firm, sliceable custard as they cook.
Ground rice
Thickens the cream and gives the filling a soft, tender body.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender, short texture to the batter.
Cream
Supplies moisture and richness, keeping the filling smooth and creamy.
Blanched and pounded almonds
Add nutty flavour and body to the filling.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps it blend smoothly with the butter.

The step that matters

Adding the eggs after the mixture cools slightly. Beaten eggs added to a very hot mixture can scramble and turn grainy. Letting it cool slightly before stirring in the eggs lets them thicken the filling gently and evenly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, rice, orange, egg, cream, cinnamon):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, rice, orange, egg, cream, cinnamon. 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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