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Dessert

Rice Souffle

A sweet rice soufflé made with ground rice, milk, eggs, sugar, and optional flavorings, baked until fluffy.

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 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.

Make the base

  1. Mix the ground rice with ½ cup of the milk until smooth.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the rice mixture with the remaining milk and butter, stirring over medium heat until thickened, about 15 minutes.

  3. Separate the yolks from the whites of the eggs. Beat the yolks and stir in the rice mixture and enough sugar to sweeten.

  4. Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then gently fold them into the rice mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a soufflé dish and bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes.

  2. Remove from the oven, sprinkle with sifted sugar, and serve immediately.

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

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

  4. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  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 give the soufflé its airy lift, while yolks enrich and set the custard.
Ground rice
Starch thickens the milk into a stable base that holds the whipped eggs.
Milk
Provides liquid that cooks with the rice into a smooth, creamy base.
Pounded sugar
Sweetens the base and adds sweetness to the finished soufflé.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender texture.

The step that matters

Folding the whites into the rice mixture. Whites hold air only while whipped; overmixing deflates them, and a dense base prevents the soufflé from rising well. Fold gently, and serve quickly since the risen structure falls as it cools.

Swap the lemon

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

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

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