Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Boiled Rice Dumplings, Custard Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the rice dumplings
Boil half a pound of rice, drain and mash it moderately fine.
Add to it two ounces of butter, three ounces of sugar, half a saltspoonful of mixed ground spice, salt and the yolks of two eggs.
Moisten a trifle with a tablespoonful or two of cream.
With floured hands shape the mixture into balls, and tie them in floured pudding cloths.
Make the custard sauce
Steam or boil forty minutes and send to table with a custard sauce made as follows.
Mix together four ounces of sugar and two ounces of butter (slightly warmed).
Beat together the yolks of two eggs and a gill of cream; mix and pour the sauce in a double saucepan.
Set this in a pan of hot water and whisk thoroughly three minutes.
Set the saucepan in cold water and whisk until the sauce is cooled.
Shape and boil the second batch
Wet it all together with milk enough to make a stiff paste.
Flour your hands and make into balls.
Tie up in separate cloths that have been wrung out in hot water and floured inside; leave room, when tying, for them to swell.
Drop them into boiling water and boil about three-quarters of an hour.
Serve and make the milk dumplings
Serve hot, with wine sauce, or syrup and butter.
Sift together powder and flour, add the beaten eggs, grated muffins, sugar, suet and milk; form into smooth batter.
Drop by tablespoonfuls into a pint of boiling milk, three or four at a time.
When done, dish and pour over the milk they were boiled in. A Danish dish; very good.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 9 of 10 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 9 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Beef | 100g cooked | 250 |
| Rice | 1 cup cooked (158g) white | 206 |
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Cream | 1 tbsp (15ml) heavy | 51 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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.
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rice
- Gives the dumplings bulk and a soft, starchy body that holds together when cooked.
- Suet
- Adds fat that keeps the dumplings moist and tender as they cook.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and set as they cook, giving structure and richness.
- Flour
- Provides starch that sets the mixture into shaped dumplings.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas when moistened and heated, so the batter rises.
- Butter
- Adds richness and smoothness to the dumplings and the custard sauce.
The step that matters
Whisking the custard sauce over hot water. Egg yolks thicken the sauce gently as they warm. If the heat is too high or the sauce is not kept moving, the yolks can scramble and curdle, so the sauce must be whisked over hot water and then cooled promptly.
“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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