Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Rice Flour Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Mix the sugar, ground rice, butter, and flour together.
Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth and add them to the mixture.
When it looks white, add the egg yolks and stir well.
Bake
Line a tin with buttered paper and bake for 1 hour.
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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,645 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Rice + flourtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,611 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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
- Adds richness and tenderness, and helps keep the cake moist.
- Egg whites
- Beaten to a stiff froth, they trap air that helps the cake rise and become light.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and help bind the batter into a set crumb.
- Ground rice
- Gives a fine, slightly crumbly texture because it contains no gluten.
- Flour
- Provides structure so the cake holds its shape while baking.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and contributes to a tender crumb and light browning.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites to a stiff froth. Whites must be whipped until they hold stiff peaks but not dry out; under-beaten whites give little lift, while over-beaten whites become grainy and collapse, leaving a dense cake.
“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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