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Dessert

Rice Cake, a Sweet Dish

A sweet baked rice cake made with cream, eggs, butter, and bread layers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Rice Cake, a Sweet Dish

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. Wash and drain the rice.

  2. Boil the rice with the cream and lemon peel until nearly cold.

  3. Remove the peel.

  4. Place the saucepan over low heat and cook until the rice swells.

  5. Add salt and sweeten with pounded sugar.

  6. When the rice is tender, mix in the egg yolks.

  7. Gradually fold in the beaten egg whites.

Prepare the mold

  1. Clarify ½ pound of butter.

  2. Pour clarified butter into a mold, turning to coat evenly.

  3. Pour out the excess butter.

  4. Layer the inside with grated bread.

  5. Brush the bread with clarified butter.

  6. Add more grated bread.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour in the rice mixture.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour.

  3. Turn out onto a dish and serve with or without garnishing of preserved fruits.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

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

  5. Rice + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Swells in the cream to form the bulk and tender body of the cake.
Fresh cream
Adds richness and moisture, cooking the rice into a soft, creamy base.
Egg yolks
Enrich the mixture and help it set into a custard-like texture when baked.
Egg whites
Folded in whipped to lighten the mixture and give it rise in the oven.
Fresh butter
Coats the mold and bread layers, adding fat for browning and a rich crust.

The step that matters

Gradually fold in the beaten egg whites. Adding the whites slowly and folding gently keeps the air bubbles intact, so the cake rises and stays light rather than collapsing or turning dense.

Swap the currant

The recipe marks currant as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, cream, lemon, sugar, egg, butter, bread):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, cream, lemon, sugar, egg, butter, bread. 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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