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Dessert

Rice Souffle

A sweet, airy dish made with milk, ground rice, eggs, butter, sugar, and vanilla, baked until puffed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Rice Souffle

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 base

  1. Mix the ground rice with some of the milk in a bowl.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a lined saucepan with the remaining milk and butter, stirring over medium heat until thickened.

  3. Separate the egg whites and yolks.

  4. Heat the yolks and mix them into the rice, vanilla, and enough sugar to sweeten.

Whip and fold

  1. Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  2. Gently fold the whisked egg whites into the rice mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a soufflé dish and immediately place it in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C).

  2. Bake for about 40 minutes.

  3. Remove from the oven and hold a hot shovel over the top, sprinkling with sifted sugar.

  4. Serve immediately with a napkin pinned around the dish.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  3. Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Rice + vanillatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,352 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Eggs
Egg whites whipped to stiff peaks provide the airy structure that lifts the soufflé.
Ground rice
Thickens the milk into a custard-like base that holds the soufflé together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the rice thickens and the eggs enrich.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, softening the flavor and texture of the base.

The step that matters

Fold the whisked egg whites gently into the rice mixture. Egg whites hold air only while whipped; heavy stirring deflates them, so a gentle fold keeps the soufflé light and able to rise in the oven.

“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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