Name: Fruit Rice Pudding
Ingredients: one cupful of cold boiled rice; one cupful of sugar; four ounces of butter to a cream; ten drops of essence of lemon; a pinch of soda; a pinch of salt; a pound of raisins stoned; one large teacupful of rice; four eggs; two teacupfuls of rice; salt

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,366 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Rice + raisintop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together565 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice: Forms the outer and inner layers, giving the pudding its body and soft structure.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and set when heated, helping the pudding hold together.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, giving a smoother, softer texture.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps browning at the surface.
Raisins: Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture through the pudding.
Essence of lemon: Adds a bright citrus aroma that lifts the sweet flavours.

The step that matters

Tie the cloth tightly over the top. A snug cloth seals the basin so steam cooks the pudding evenly and water cannot soak in. A loose cover lets steam escape and the pudding can turn out wet or unevenly cooked.

Swap the lemon

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

Vanillafits better
Coconutfits better
Figfits better
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, sugar, butter, cream, raisin, egg. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Grape	1/2 cup (76g)	62
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Fruit Rice Pudding