Why it works: Rice and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,374 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Rice Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Mash the boiled rice with the milk (or sour milk mixture).
Sift the flour with baking powder, salt, and sugar into the rice mixture.
Add the egg and mix until well combined.
Cook and serve
Drop spoonfuls of the batter onto a hot, well-greased skillet.
Fry four or five cakes at a time until thoroughly cooked.
Serve with maple syrup or sugar and butter.
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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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 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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Sugar + maple syruptop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,252 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Boiled rice
- Adds body and a soft, tender crumb to the batter.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides structure so the cakes hold together when fried.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and helps set the cakes as they cook.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas that makes the cakes rise and turn light.
- Milk
- Moistens the batter and helps it spread to a loose consistency.
The step that matters
Fry four or five cakes at a time until thoroughly cooked. Crowding the skillet drops its temperature, so the cakes steam and stay pale and soggy instead of browning. Cooking them through in batches over steady heat gives a cooked centre and a golden surface.
“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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