Name: Rice Batter Cakes
Ingredients: 3 cups buttermilk or sour milk; 4 eggs; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1 tumbler (about 1 cup) cooked rice; 1 teaspoon baking soda; Warm water as needed

Why it works: Buttermilk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,986 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Rice Batter Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, beat the eggs thoroughly.
Combine the buttermilk, cooked rice, and salt with the beaten eggs.
Mix in enough flour to achieve the usual thickness of batter cakes.
Dissolve the baking soda in warm water and add it to the batter.
Pour the batter onto a greased skillet or griddle and cook until golden brown on both sides.

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.

Buttermilk + eggtop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,986 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Buttermilk + ricetop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together118 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Egg + ricetop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,350 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).