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 ↓
Souffle Au Riz
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the base
Mix rice flour, milk, and lump sugar in a saucepan.
Boil gently until thick, then remove from heat.
Stir in pounded ratafias and beaten egg yolks.
Bake and serve
Fold in beaten egg whites gently.
Butter a deep dish and pour in the mixture.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 20 minutes until risen.
Sprinkle sugar on top and serve immediately.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + milktop 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).
Flour and butter 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
- Egg whites
- Whipped into foam, they trap air that lifts the soufflé as it bakes.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the base and help it set into a custard-like structure as it cooks.
- Rice flour
- Thickens the milk into a stable base that holds the risen mixture.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the flour thickens and the eggs set into.
- Lump sugar
- Sweetens the base and adds a little tenderness to the finished soufflé.
The step that matters
Fold in beaten egg whites gently. Folding keeps the air trapped in the whites. Stirring or beating them down deflates the foam, so the soufflé rises less in the oven.
“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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