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Dessert

Rice Cake, Souffle

A baked rice soufflé flavored with citrus, folded with beaten egg whites, served with powdered sugar and lemon sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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, Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the base

  1. Prepare the rice as in No. 1324 and let it cool in a pan.

  2. Flavor the cooled rice with lemon or orange juice and mix in the yolks of 6 eggs.

  3. Beat the whites of 4 eggs until stiff and gently fold them into the rice mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Butter Charlotte molds and dust them with bread crumbs.

  2. Fill the molds three-quarters full with the rice mixture and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven.

  3. Once baked, turn the rice cake onto a dish and let it stand for a few minutes.

  4. Remove the mold, sprinkle with powdered sugar, and serve with lemon sauce.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,366 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Rice + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air that lifts the mixture as it bakes.
Egg yolks
Enrich the rice mixture and help it set into a tender, custard-like texture.
Rice
Forms the body of the soufflé, giving it bulk and a soft crumb.
Lemon or orange juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the rice and eggs.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stir the whipped whites in gently so the air bubbles stay intact. Overmixing deflates the foam, and the soufflé then rises less and bakes up denser.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, egg, butter, bread, sugar, sauce):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, egg, butter, bread, sugar, sauce. 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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