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Rice Cakes

Savory cakes made from soft boiled rice, eggs, and flour, fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Rice Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Combine soft boiled rice, egg yolks, flour, and salt in a bowl.

  2. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. Gently fold beaten egg whites into the rice mixture.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat a buttered griddle over medium heat.

  2. Pour mixture onto the griddle.

  3. Fry until golden brown on both sides.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Rice + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Soft boiled rice
Forms the bulk of the cakes and gives them a soft, tender body.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the rice mixture together.
Flour
Helps hold the cakes together so they keep their shape while frying.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they add lightness and airiness to the batter.

The step that matters

Gently fold beaten egg whites into the rice mixture. Whipped egg whites trap air that gives lift. Stirring vigorously deflates them, leaving dense cakes instead of light ones.

“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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