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Dessert

Rice Cake a l’Ancienne

A custard-like rice cake made with Carolina rice, cream, milk, vanilla sugar, eggs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Rice Cake a l’Ancienne

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rice

  1. Inspect the rice and remove any black specks or solid grains.

  2. Wash the rice in two waters.

  3. Boil the rice in 2 quarts of boiling water for 2 minutes, then strain.

Cook the rice

  1. In a clean 2-quart saucepan, combine the rice, cream, and milk.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Add the vanilla sugar, cover tightly, and simmer on low for 30 minutes.

  4. Check if the rice is thoroughly cooked, then remove it to cool.

Enrich and prepare the mold

  1. Separate the eggs and stir in the yolks, two at a time, along with the butter.

  2. Mix well and place the mixture on a dish to cool, covering with buttered paper.

  3. Prepare clarified butter and grease a quart-size pudding mold.

  4. Cut a round of foolscap paper to fit the bottom of the mold and butter the side that will show.

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.

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.

  1. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Vanilla and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Carolina rice
Forms the bulk of the dish, its starch thickening as it cooks in cream and milk.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the rice a smooth, tender texture.
Milk
Provides liquid for the rice to absorb and soften during simmering.
Eggs
Yolks bind the cooked rice and set on cooling for a firmer, custard-like structure.
Vanilla sugar
Adds sweetness and aroma to the rice as it simmers.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour, enriching the texture of the mixture.

The step that matters

Simmering the rice covered on low heat. Rice simmering in milk and cream can scorch on the bottom or cook unevenly if heat is too high. Gentle, covered heat lets the grains absorb liquid and soften evenly without sticking.

“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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