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Rice Souffle

A baked rice soufflé made with milk, rice, orange‑flower water, sugar, eggs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Rice Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the rice base

  1. Boil the rice in milk with orange‑flower water and pounded sugar until tender.

  2. Separate the egg yolks from the whites.

  3. Stir in each yolk one at a time, then add butter in small pieces.

  4. Mix thoroughly until the rice is thickened.

Fold and bake

  1. Whisk the egg whites until very stiff.

  2. Let the rice mixture cool slightly, then quickly fold in the egg whites.

  3. Pour the mixture into a buttered souffle dish, sprinkle with pounded sugar.

  4. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 7 to 10 minutes until set.

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. Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

  3. Rice + orangetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Milk + orangetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,696 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whipped whites trap air for lift, while yolks enrich and set the custard-like base.
Rice
Cooked in milk until tender, it thickens the base and gives the soufflé body.
Milk
Cooks with the rice into a thick, creamy base that carries the other ingredients.
Butter
Adds richness and smooth texture to the thickened base.
Pounded loaf sugar
Sweetens the base and adds a little sugar to the top for browning.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites. Fold gently and quickly, after the base has cooled slightly. Overmixing deflates the whipped whites, and a very hot base can melt them, so the soufflé loses its rise.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

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