Why it works: Rice and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,137 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Rice Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Combine cold boiled rice, eggs, milk, and wheat flour to form a batter.
Cook and serve
Heat a griddle or frying pan over medium heat and add sweet butter.
Pour batter onto the griddle, cooking until golden brown on both sides.
Serve warm for breakfast, as a side dish, or as a dessert with ground cinnamon and fine sugar.
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 + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,137 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Wheat + cinnamontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together537 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
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Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,418 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Rice + wheattop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together423 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cold boiled rice
- Forms the bulk of the cake and gives it a tender, starchy body.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help the cakes hold their shape while cooking.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and loosens the batter to a pourable consistency.
- Wheat flour
- Adds starch that helps the batter hold together and promotes browning.
- Sweet butter
- Fat for frying that gives a rich flavor and golden browning on the surface.
The step that matters
Pour batter onto the griddle, cooking until golden brown on both sides. The butter must be hot enough to brown the surface but not burn. Cooking on both sides lets the eggs and starch set through the cake, so it holds together when flipped.
“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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