Name: Rice Cheese Pudding
Ingredients: ¼ pound ground rice; 2 cups milk; ¼ pound butter; ¼ pound currants, washed and dried; 3 eggs, beaten; 2 tablespoons ratafia or brandy; Sugar to taste; Nutmeg to taste; Puff pastry for the bottom

Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Rice Cheese Pudding

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 base

In a saucepan, steep the ground rice in milk over medium heat until soft.
Transfer the mixture to an earthen pot and stir in the butter until melted.
Cover the pot and let it sit overnight.

Fill and bake

The next day, add the currants, beaten eggs, ratafia or brandy, sugar, and nutmeg.
Pour the mixture into patty pans lined with puff pastry.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.

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.

Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,374 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Rice + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,779 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,685 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Ground rice: Forms the body of the pudding and thickens as it softens in the milk.
Eggs: Set when baked, giving the filling its firm, custard-like structure.
Butter: Adds richness and a silky texture to the filling.
Milk: Hydrates the rice and provides the liquid base for the custard.
Currants: Add pockets of sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Baking until set. Eggs firm up as they heat, but overbaking can make the custard curdle, weep or turn rubbery. Bake only until the centre is just set and still slightly soft in the middle, as it will firm further while cooling.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, butter, egg, brandy, sugar, nutmeg):

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Coconutfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, butter, egg, brandy, 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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Rice Cheese Pudding