Why it works: Butter and milk 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 Flummery a LA Creme
Ingredients
Directions
Make the rice base
Soak the ground rice in water and strain it.
Mix the strained rice with butter and sugar.
Pour in the boiling milk and stir well.
Pour the mixture into a wet mold and let it swell and cool.
Make the sauce and serve
In a separate bowl, mix the eggs with sugar, some milk, and flour.
Boil the egg mixture briefly and pour it around the rice flummery in the mold.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Butter and flour 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
- Ground rice
- Forms the set body of the flummery as it swells and cools.
- Eggs
- Set when heated, giving the accompanying sauce body and richness.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a soft, rich texture and smooth mouthfeel.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps balance the flavor of the milk and eggs.
- Milk
- Hydrates the rice and forms the liquid base that sets into the flummery.
The step that matters
Boil the egg mixture briefly. Eggs thicken as their proteins set with heat, so a brief boil thickens the sauce, while overheating can curdle it into lumps. Stir constantly and remove from heat once it coats a spoon.
“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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