Name: Rice Soufflé
Ingredients: ½ cup rice; 1 pint milk; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 cup sugar; 5 egg yolks; zest of 1 lemon; ½ lemon juice; whites of 5 eggs; sugar for sprinkling

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 Soufflé

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.

Prepare the rice

Boil the rice in salted water for 10 minutes, then drain.
Combine the rice with milk, butter, and sugar in a saucepan; boil for 30 minutes until the rice is very soft.
Beat the mixture to a smooth paste with a wooden spoon.

Make the soufflé

Add the beaten egg yolks, lemon zest, and lemon juice. If too firm, add a little cream.
Once cooled, fold in the whipped egg whites.
Pour the mixture into a pudding dish, sprinkle with sugar, and bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 10 minutes.

Serve

Serve immediately with Snow Sauce.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,374 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,366 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked 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 until very soft, it forms the thick base that gives the soufflé its body.
Egg yolks: Enrich the base and add richness and a smooth, custardy texture.
Whites of 5 eggs: Whipped and folded in, they trap air that lifts the mixture as it bakes.
Milk: Cooks with the rice to create a soft, creamy base with moisture.
Sugar: Sweetens the dish and helps the top brown lightly in the oven.
Lemon zest and juice: Add aroma and a bright acidity that balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites gently. Whipped whites hold the air that makes the soufflé rise. Stirring them in vigorously knocks out this air, so the dish bakes flat and dense. Fold slowly with a spatula, and only once the base has cooled enough not to melt the foam.