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Dessert

Imperial Rice Cake

A baked cake made from rice, almonds, eggs, butter, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Imperial Rice Cake

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 rice

  1. Combine rice and milk in a pot.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Remove from heat and let the rice absorb the milk.

  4. Once cooled, pour the rice into a dish.

  5. Stir the rice occasionally.

Make the batter

  1. Blend almonds with laurel water until smooth.

  2. Whisk egg yolks and whites in a bowl.

  3. Add butter, lemon zest, and sugar to the whisked eggs.

  4. Mix the ingredients well.

  5. Incorporate the almond paste and rice into the mixture.

  6. Ensure the rice remains granulated.

Bake

  1. Transfer the mixture into a buttered and sugared mold.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes.

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. Rice + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

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

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

  4. Laurel + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,239 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks and whites provide structure and set the cake as they cook.
Sweet almonds
Ground into a paste, they add moisture, richness and nutty flavour.
Whole rice
Softened in milk, it gives the cake a tender, granular body.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and richer flavour.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps give it a fine, tender texture.

The step that matters

Keep the rice granulated. Rice that is overcooked or left too wet turns mushy and loses its texture. Letting it absorb the milk gently and stirring it so the grains stay separate keeps the cake's crumb light and even.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, laurel, egg, butter, lemon, sugar):

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Walnutfits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Chickpeafits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, laurel, egg, butter, lemon, sugar. 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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