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Dessert

Rice Caramel

A caramelized rice pudding made with milk, cream, eggs, and sugar, baked or steamed and served with a rum or cherry-water syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Rice Caramel

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.

Make the batter

  1. Make a batter by combining rice, milk, cream, orange flower or lemon peel (to taste), sugar, and egg yolks.

  2. Mix well and gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

Make the caramel

  1. In a saucepan, brown 4 ounces of sugar with a little water until caramelized.

  2. Pour the caramel into a mold, coating the sides evenly.

Bake and serve

  1. Once cooled, add the batter to the mold.

  2. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven or steam in boiling water until firm.

  3. Let the pudding cool, then turn it out onto a dish.

  4. Serve with a syrup made of water, sugar, and a splash of rum or cherry water.

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. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Cream + syruptop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Rice + orangetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (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, giving it a firm, sliceable structure once baked.
Egg yolks
Enrich the batter and help it set into a firm, custard-like texture.
Egg whites
Whipped and folded in, they add lightness and help the pudding rise and stay airy.
Milk and cream
Provide moisture and a tender, creamy texture as the batter cooks.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and, when browned, forms the caramel that coats the mold.

The step that matters

Browning the caramel. Sugar goes from amber to burnt very quickly. Pale caramel tastes weak, while over-browned caramel turns bitter, so it should be removed from heat as soon as it reaches a rich amber.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, cream, sugar, egg, syrup):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, cream, sugar, egg, syrup. 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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