Why it works: Rice and corn match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 933 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Rice-and-milk Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Combine rice, corn starch, and milk in a pot.
Boil until each grain of rice is saturated and the mixture is creamy in color.
Sweeten to taste before serving.
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.
-
Rice + corntop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together933 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rice
- Its starch swells as it cooks, giving the pudding body and a tender, creamy bite.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the milk as it heats, helping the pudding set to a smooth, creamy texture.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the rice absorbs and that becomes the creamy body of the pudding.
The step that matters
Boil until the rice is saturated and the mixture is creamy. Rice must be fully hydrated and the starch thickened before the pudding is done. Stopping too early leaves firm grains and a thin texture, while overcooking can scorch the milk on the bottom of the pot.
“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.
More rice pudding recipes
You might also like
Rice Cake120 recipes
Corn Cake90 recipes
Corn Starch Cake89 recipes
Rice Cream43 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.