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Dessert

Rice Souffle

A sweet, custard-like rice soufflé made with milk, ground rice, eggs, butter, sugar, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Rice Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the base

  1. Mix the rice thoroughly with some of the milk.

  2. Put it in a lined saucepan with the remaining milk and butter, stirring over heat until thickened.

  3. Beat the egg yolks and add them to the rice mixture along with the vanilla and enough sugar to sweeten.

  4. Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks and gently fold them into the rice mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a soufflé dish and place it in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C).

  2. Bake for about 30 minutes.

  3. Remove from the oven, hold a hot spoon over the top, 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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

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

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

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Rice + vanillatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,352 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Eggs
Egg yolks enrich and set the base, while whipped whites lift the soufflé with air.
Ground rice
Thickens the milk into a stable base that holds the whipped eggs.
Milk
Provides the liquid that the rice thickens into a smooth custard base.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the base and adds flavour to the finished soufflé.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, softer texture.

The step that matters

Folding the whites into the base. Whisked egg whites trap air that makes the soufflé rise. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring or deflating the whites makes the soufflé rise less and turn dense.

“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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