Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Rice Puddings
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the rice
Wash the rice well in water and strain it.
Cook the rice
Put the rice into boiling milk with lemon peel, cinnamon, and bay leaf tied together.
Boil gently, stirring occasionally until the rice is tender.
Finish and bake
Add butter, nutmeg, sugar, and eggs to the rice mixture.
Pour the mixture into a buttered tart dish and bake for 30 minutes.
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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Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,917 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Rice + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,137 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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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
- Rice
- Provides the starch and bulk that thicken the pudding as it cooks.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the rice cooks in, giving the pudding its body.
- Eggs
- Set during baking to bind the pudding and give it a custard-like texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more tender mouthfeel.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the top brown during baking.
The step that matters
Boil gently, stirring occasionally until the rice is tender. Milk scorches easily on the bottom of the pan, and a hard boil can burn it or cause it to boil over. Gentle heat and stirring let the rice soften evenly and release starch that thickens the milk.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, cinnamon, butter, nutmeg, sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, cinnamon, butter, nutmeg, sugar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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