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Dessert

Rice, Tapioca, Macaroni or Barley Pudding

A sweet pudding made with rice, tapioca, macaroni, or barley simmered in milk, sugar, and butter, finished with vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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, Tapioca, Macaroni or Barley Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. In a saucepan, combine the rice, tapioca, macaroni, or barley with milk, sugar, salt, and butter.

  2. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the mixture thickens.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract.

Serve

  1. Pour into a serving dish and let cool before serving.

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. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  5. Rice + vanillatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,352 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla 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

Rice, tapioca, macaroni, or barley
Starch that swells as it cooks, thickening the milk into a pudding texture.
Milk
Liquid that cooks with the starch, providing the body and creamy texture of the pudding.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps soften the set pudding's flavor.
Butter
Adds fat, contributing richness and a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Cooking over medium heat while stirring. Milk scorches on the bottom of the pan easily, and the starch can settle and clump if heat is too high or stirring is infrequent. Frequent stirring at moderate heat keeps the mixture smooth as the starch swells and thickens.

“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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