Name: Rice Waffles
Ingredients: 1-2 cups cooked rice; 2 large eggs, beaten; 1 pint sweet milk; a pinch of salt; 1-2 teaspoons baking powder; about 1 pint all-purpose flour

Why it works: Rice and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,374 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Rice Waffles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

Boil 1-2 cups of rice until tender.
In a bowl, combine the cooked rice, beaten eggs, sweet milk, salt, baking powder, and flour. Mix until well combined.

Cook the waffles

Preheat the waffle iron and grease it with butter.
Pour the batter into the waffle iron and cook until golden brown.
Repeat until all batter is used, about 5 times.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,374 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Rice + flourtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,611 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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: Bind the batter and add structure as they set during cooking.
All-purpose flour: Provides the main structure that holds the waffle together.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter so the waffles rise and turn light.
Cooked rice: Adds body and a tender texture to the batter.
Sweet milk: Adds moisture and helps the batter spread and brown.

“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.