Why it works: Nutmeg and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Rice Meringue
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.
Prepare the rice pudding
Boil the rice in water until soft, then drain and cool.
Add milk, egg yolks, sugar, and nutmeg (or flavoring) to the rice and mix well.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes.
Let it cool completely.
Top with meringue
Beat the egg whites until stiff, then add sugar and flavoring.
Spread the meringue over the pudding and lightly brown it in the oven.
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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Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rice + nutmegtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,779 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rice
- Forms the body of the pudding and gives it a soft, tender texture once cooked.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that sets with the eggs into a creamy, custard-like base.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the pudding as they set in the oven and add richness.
- Egg whites
- Whip into a foam that forms the meringue topping, which lightly browns in the oven.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps the egg whites whip into a stable meringue.
The step that matters
Beat the egg whites until stiff. Egg whites must be whipped to firm peaks before sugar is added, because a well-whipped foam holds its shape and browns evenly. Underbeaten whites weep and collapse on the pudding.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, egg, sugar, nutmeg):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, egg, sugar, nutmeg. 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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