Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Rice Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the rice
Wash the rice well.
Boil the rice in the cream or milk until soft.
Let the rice cool.
Make the batter
Stir in the sugar, butter, beaten eggs (except the reserved egg whites), and rose water or lemon peel alternately.
Butter a mold or deep pan with straight sides and coat the inside with grated bread crumbs.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture into the prepared mold and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes.
If any cake is left, cut it into slices the next day and fry in butter.
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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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Rice + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,259 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rice
- Cooked until soft, it forms the bulk and body of the cake.
- Cream or milk
- Cooks the rice and adds moisture and richness to the cake.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the cake brown on the outside.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavor.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and set during baking to give the cake structure.
The step that matters
Let the rice cool before stirring in the eggs. Adding beaten eggs to hot rice can scramble them, leaving lumps and an uneven texture instead of a smooth, set cake.
“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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