Why it works: Milk and butter 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 Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the batter
Combine the cold boiled rice, flour, egg, cornstarch, and salt in a bowl.
Gradually add enough milk or buttermilk to make a smooth batter.
Bake
Mix in the baking soda and melted butter just before baking.
Bake immediately in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden.
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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Milk + buttertop 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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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).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 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
- Cold boiled rice
- Gives the cakes body and a chewy, tender texture.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the batter together as it bakes.
- Egg
- Binds the ingredients and helps set the batter as it cooks.
- Milk or buttermilk
- Hydrates the flour and rice to form a smooth, pourable batter.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in buttermilk to produce gas that lightens the cakes.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for richer flavour and helps the cakes brown.
The step that matters
Mix in the baking soda and bake immediately. Baking soda starts releasing gas as soon as it meets liquid and acid. Waiting before baking lets that lift escape, so the cakes come out flatter and denser.
“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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