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Dessert

Rice Snow

A sweet custard made from milk, rice flour, egg whites, and spices, chilled to set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Rice Snow

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Scald the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Mix the rice flour with a little cold milk to form a thin paste, then stir it into the scalded milk.

  3. Cook until the mixture begins to thicken, then add the sugar and spices.

  4. Simmer for five minutes, stirring constantly.

  5. Remove from heat and beat in the butter until melted.

  6. Let the mixture cool, then flavor with vanilla.

Finish and serve

  1. Whip the cooled mixture into the beaten egg whites, one spoonful at a time.

  2. Pour into a wet mold and refrigerate to set.

  3. Serve with sweet cream.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  5. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth custard as its starch gelatinizes when heated.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the starch thickens into a custard.
Egg whites
Whipped to foam, they lighten the set custard and give it an airy, snowy texture.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and helps soften the set texture of the custard.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, fat-coated mouthfeel to the custard.

The step that matters

Whip the cooled mixture into the egg whites. If the custard is still warm, it will deflate the whipped whites and thin the foam. Cooling first keeps the air bubbles intact so the dessert stays light and snowy.

“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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