Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Rice Pancakes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Boil the rice until it reaches a jelly-like consistency.
Beat the rice until fine.
In a bowl, mix the beaten rice with butter until creamy.
Add cream, eggs, sugar, salt, and nutmeg to the mixture and combine well.
Fry
Heat a small amount of Jard or dripping in a pan.
Pour the mixture into the pan and fry until golden brown on both sides.
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 + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Rice + nutmegtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,779 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,920 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
-
Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,645 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rice
- Cooked and beaten to a fine base that gives the pancakes their body.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, keeping the batter creamy and tender.
- Cream
- Adds moisture and richness, loosening the batter.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help it set as it cooks.
- Loaf sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown in the pan.
The step that matters
Frying until golden brown on both sides. Sugar and milk solids in the batter brown quickly, so the heat should be moderate; too hot and the outside darkens before the centre sets.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, butter, cream, egg, sugar):
- Nutmegthe original
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Capersfits less well
- Turmericfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, butter, cream, egg, sugar. 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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