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Dessert

Rice Buns

A sweet baked bun made from ground rice, sugar, butter, eggs, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,645 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Rice Buns

about 8 to 10 buns

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.

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine ½ pound of ground rice and ½ teaspoon of baking powder.

  2. Add ½ pound of sugar and 2 ounces of butter, mixing well with a wooden spoon.

  3. Break in 2 eggs and beat the mixture lightly.

Bake and serve

  1. Grease small tins or patty pans with butter.

  2. Fill the tins two-thirds full with the mixture; this will make about 8 to 10 buns.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 15 minutes.

  4. Turn the buns out of the tins and let them cool on a plate.

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. Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Rice + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Ground rice
Forms the bulk of the batter, giving the buns their dense, crumbly structure.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the buns brown in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and add moisture and structure as they set in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the buns rise and lighten.

The step that matters

Filling the tins. Filling the tins only two-thirds full leaves room for the batter to rise in the oven without overflowing or becoming dense and spread out. Baking powder needs that space to expand the batter.

“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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