Name: Rice Cake
Ingredients: 10 ounces ground rice; 3 ounces flour; 8 ounces pounded sugar; 8 yolks of eggs; 6 whites of eggs; peel of 1 lemon

Why it works: Rice and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,366 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

Rice Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the batter

Mix ground rice, flour, and pounded sugar.
Sift mixture into yolks and whites of eggs.
Add finely shredded lemon peel and mix well.

Cook and bake

Heat mixture in a tin stew pan over low heat with a whisk.
Immediately transfer to the oven and bake for 40 minutes.

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.

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.

Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,366 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Rice + flourtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,611 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,404 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg 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

Eggs: Whites trap air for lift and structure, while yolks add richness and moisture.
Ground rice: Gives the cake a tender, slightly granular texture and body.
Flour: Adds structure so the cake holds its shape after baking.
Pounded sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown during baking.
Lemon peel: Adds fragrant citrus aroma.

The step that matters

Heating over low heat while whisking. Egg proteins begin to set around 70°C and can scramble or curdle if heated too fast or left unstirred. Gentle heat with constant whisking thickens the mixture evenly, and moving it to the oven promptly preserves the air beaten into the eggs.