Why it works: Rice and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,366 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓
Rice Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Boil rice and sugar in water until it becomes a gelatinous mass.
Strain off the jelly.
Add lemon juice or wine.
Let the jelly cool, then serve.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rice + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,744 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Its starch thickens the water and sets into a gelatinous mass as it boils and cools.
- Loaf sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the flavour of the starchy jelly.
- Lemon juice or wine
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the sweet jelly.
The step that matters
Boiling until gelatinous. Rice starch must be cooked in water until it swells and thickens into a gel. Stopping too early leaves the jelly runny and unset, while boiling too long can break the starch down so it sets weakly.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Raisinfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, sugar. 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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