Why it works: Egg and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Rice Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
In a bowl, combine the soft boiled rice, egg yolk, salt, and sifted flour.
Mix well until the ingredients are fully combined.
Shape and cook
Shape the mixture into small cakes.
Cook the cakes in a lightly greased skillet over medium heat until golden brown on both sides.
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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Egg + flourtop 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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Rice + eggtop 28% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,350 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Egg and flour 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
- Soft boiled rice
- Forms the bulk of the cakes and gives them their body and chew.
- Egg yolk
- Binds the rice so the cakes hold their shape while cooking.
- Sifted flour
- Absorbs moisture and helps the mixture firm up enough to shape.
The step that matters
Cook the cakes over medium heat until golden on both sides. Medium heat lets the centres set and the surfaces brown through the Maillard reaction without scorching. Too high a heat burns the outside before the cakes are cooked through, while too low a heat leaves them pale and soft.
“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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