Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Rice Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Make the jelly
Mix rice flour with cold water.
Stir into boiling water with sugar and boil for 10 minutes, stirring constantly.
Stir in lemon extract and mold the mixture.
Serve
Serve with cream and sugar.
Flavor cream with lemon for fever or brandy for diarrhea.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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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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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Cream + brandytop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,635 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
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Rice + flourtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,611 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
- Rice flour
- Thickens the liquid and sets into a soft gel as it cools.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and adds body to its flavor.
- Cream
- Adds richness and softens the sharp lemon flavor when served.
The step that matters
Boil for 10 minutes while stirring constantly. Rice flour starch must reach a full boil so its granules swell and thicken the liquid. Constant stirring prevents lumps and scorching on the bottom of the pan.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, flour, sugar, cream, brandy):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, flour, sugar, cream, brandy. 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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