Name: Plain Baked Rice Fudbizvo
Ingredients: 1 pint rice, washed; 1 pint milk; ¼ teaspoon salt; 3 eggs; 2 cups sugar; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 teaspoon cinnamon or nutmeg

Why it works: Rice and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,137 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Plain Baked Rice Fudbizvo

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 pudding base

Boil the rice in milk with salt until soft.
Let it cool, then add eggs, sugar, butter, and cinnamon or nutmeg.
Mix well and pour into a buttered dish.

Bake

Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour.

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.

Rice + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,137 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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).
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,655 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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: Provides the body of the pudding as it softens and thickens in the milk.
Milk: Forms the liquid base that cooks the rice and sets into a creamy custard.
Eggs: Set during baking to give the pudding structure and a firm, sliceable texture.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the pudding brown lightly on top.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Let the rice cool before adding the eggs. Adding beaten eggs to very hot rice and milk can scramble them, leaving a grainy texture instead of a smooth set custard. Cooling first lets the eggs blend evenly and set gently in the oven.

“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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Plain Baked Rice Fudbizvo