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Bread

Southern Rice Bread

A baked bread made with cornmeal, rice, milk, eggs, butter, salt, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Southern Rice Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Beat the eggs until very light.

  3. Add the milk to the eggs, then stir in the rice.

  4. In a separate bowl, mix the cornmeal with salt and baking powder.

  5. Combine the wet and dry mixtures, then add the melted butter.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the batter into buttered layer cake or pie tins.

  2. Bake for about 30 minutes until golden and no more than 1 inch thick.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 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

Eggs
Provide structure and richness as they set, helping the bread hold together.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, lifting the bread so it rises in the oven.
Cornmeal
Gives the bread its coarse, sturdy body and corn flavour.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the batter and helps it brown.
Cold boiled rice
Adds moisture and a tender crumb to the batter.

The step that matters

Bake until golden, not too thick. The batter must be spread no more than 1 inch thick so the centre cooks through while the outside browns. Thicker batter can stay wet inside and brown too quickly outside.

“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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