Why it works: Rice and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,366 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓
Rice-cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a gentle oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Mix the ground rice, flour, and pounded sugar in a bowl.
Sift the mixture gradually into the egg yolks and egg whites.
Finely shred the lemon peel and add it to the mixture.
Make the batter and bake
Whisk everything together in a tin stewpan over low heat until well combined.
Transfer the mixture to the oven in the same stewpan and bake at 300°F (150°C) for 40 minutes.
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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Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Rice + flourtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,611 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and fat, and help the cake set as they cook.
- Egg whites
- Trap air to lighten the batter and give the cake its rise.
- Ground rice
- Provides the main body and a fine, tender crumb structure.
- Flour
- Adds structure so the cake holds its shape after baking.
- Pounded sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown lightly in the oven.
The step that matters
Whisk over low heat until well combined. Heating the mixture gently keeps the egg yolks and whites from scrambling while the batter thickens. Overheating can set the eggs unevenly before the cake is baked.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, flour, sugar, egg):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, flour, sugar, egg. 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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