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 Pudding with Fruit
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the rice
Combine the rice and milk in a stew-pan and heat gently without boiling.
Once the rice has absorbed all the milk, stir in the dried currants and the beaten egg.
Boil the mixture in a bag until the rice is tender.
Serve
Serve the pudding with sugar and cream.
Add more fruit if desired.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + curranttop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,475 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 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
- Its starch absorbs the milk and softens, giving the pudding its body and creamy texture.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid the rice absorbs as it cooks, making the pudding creamy.
- Dried currants
- Add sweetness, chewy bite and fruity flavour throughout the pudding.
- Egg
- Adds richness and helps bind and set the pudding as it cooks.
The step that matters
Stirring in the beaten egg. Egg proteins set at moderate heat and can curdle or scramble if they meet a very hot mixture. Stir the egg in once the rice has absorbed the milk and the pudding is no longer boiling, so it blends smoothly and thickens evenly.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, egg, sugar, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, egg, sugar, cream. 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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