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 Cake
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 batter
Sift the ground rice and flour together onto a sheet of paper.
In a clean bowl, cream the butter with the sugar and grated lemon rind.
Add the egg and mix well.
Gradually add the sifted flour, moisten with milk to achieve a cake-batter consistency.
Bake
Pour the mixture into a greased mold.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1 to 1.5 hours.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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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 + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Butter or margarine
- Creamed with sugar, it traps air and gives the cake a tender, rich crumb.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and adds structure and richness as it sets in the oven.
- Ground rice
- Gives a fine, light, slightly crumbly texture in place of some wheat flour structure.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Castor sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps create a light texture when creamed with the butter.
The step that matters
Adding the milk to the batter. Milk must be added gradually until the batter reaches a cake-batter consistency. Too little makes a dry, dense cake, and too much makes it heavy and loose, so the texture suffers.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, flour, sugar, egg, butter, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, flour, sugar, egg, butter, milk. 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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