Name: Almond Snow-balls
Ingredients: 1 cup rice; 2 cups milk; Blanched almonds, halved; Cream sauce or plain cream and sugar

Why it works: Rice and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,456 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Almond Snow-balls

Ingredients

1 cup rice
2 cups milk
Blanched almonds, halved
Cream sauce or plain cream and sugar

Directions

Make the rice balls

Boil rice in a double boiler in water until soft.
Pour in milk and mold the mixture into cups or balls.

Finish and serve

Stick halved almonds around the rice.
Serve with cream sauce or plain cream and sugar.

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.

Rice + almondtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,456 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,374 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,130 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,800 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together29,399 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice: Softens into a starchy base that holds the shape of the balls.
Milk: Adds moisture and softness, letting the cooked rice be molded into shape.
Blanched almonds: Add a crunchy, nutty contrast to the soft rice and decorate the outside.