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-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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Dry the flour well.
Make the batter
Beat the eggs and powdered sugar together until well combined.
Gradually add the flour and ground rice, one spoonful at a time, while beating for 30 minutes.
Add the grated lemon peel and lemon juice, then mix well.
Pour the mixture into a well-greased cake pan.
Bake
Bake for 40 minutes or until golden brown.
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.
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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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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + ricetop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,611 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Eggs
- Beaten with sugar, they trap air and give the cake its light, risen structure.
- Flour
- Provides the starch and gluten network that sets the cake's structure as it bakes.
- Ground rice
- Adds a fine, tender crumb and a slightly crisp texture compared with flour alone.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the batter and, when beaten with eggs, helps create a light, airy foam.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness.
The step that matters
Gradually add the flour and ground rice while beating. Adding the dry ingredients slowly, a spoonful at a time, keeps the egg foam from deflating. Dumping them in at once knocks out the air that gives the cake its lift.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, rice, sugar, egg):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, rice, sugar, egg. 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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