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Rice Gdteau

A baked rice cake made with milk, lemon rind, butter, eggs, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 Gdteau

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Cook the rice

  1. Wash the rice well to prevent burning.

  2. Put the rice in a saucepan and cover with water.

  3. Bring to a boil, then simmer until the water is absorbed.

  4. Add the milk and lemon rind, then the butter.

  5. Simmer gently until the rice is soft.

  6. Remove the lemon rind and beat the rice with a wooden spoon.

  7. Sweeten and let it cool.

Make the batter

  1. Separate the egg whites and yolks.

  2. Stir the yolks into the rice.

  3. Butter a mold and sprinkle with bread-crumbs.

  4. Whisk the egg whites to a firm froth and gently fold into the rice mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into the mold and bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 50 minutes.

  2. Let it stand for a couple of minutes, then turn out and serve.

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

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

  3. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Starch that thickens as it cooks and sets into a soft, tender body.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, cooking the rice into a creamy base.
Eggs
Whites trapped as foam lift the mixture, while yolks help it set and enrich it.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more tender texture.

The step that matters

Whisk the egg whites to a firm froth and fold gently. Egg whites trap air to lift the cake; overmixing or deflating them while folding makes the rice cake dense and heavy.

Swap the lemon

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

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

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