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 Blanc Mange
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
Mix rice flour with a little cold water and a pinch of salt.
Stir this mixture into boiling milk and boil for 10 minutes, stirring constantly.
When partly cool, add beaten egg whites and cook again until almost boiling.
Turn the mixture into a wet mold and let it set.
Serve
Serve with sweetened and flavored cream.
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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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Rice + flourtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,611 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Flour and milk 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
- Rice flour
- Thickens the milk as it heats, giving the pudding its body.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the starch thickens into a creamy pudding.
- Egg whites
- Add protein that sets with heat, helping the pudding hold its shape when cooled.
The step that matters
Stirring the rice flour into boiling milk. Stirring constantly keeps the starch dispersed so it does not clump or scorch on the bottom. Starch needs to be fully hydrated and heated to thicken evenly, so lumps or scorching would spoil the texture.
“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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