Why it works: Milk and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,374 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Rice Bavarian, or Riz a L'imperatrice
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the rice
Put one and one half pints of milk and a few thin cuts of lemon zest into a double boiler.
When the milk boils, stir in one half cupful of well-washed rice and a saltspoonful of salt.
Cook until the rice is perfectly tender and the milk is nearly boiled away, leaving the rice very moist.
Flavor and set
Add a half cupful of sugar and a quarter of a box (or one half ounce) of gelatin that has soaked in half a cupful of cold water for one hour, then melt it by placing the cup in hot water for a few minutes.
When the mixture is partly cold, add three tablespoonfuls each of maraschino and sherry (or sherry alone, or any other flavoring).
When it is beginning to set, stir in lightly one half pint or more of well-whipped cream, and pour into a mold.
Serve
Serve alone or with orange jelly cut into croutons, orange compote, or plain or whipped cream.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Rice | 1 cup cooked (158g) white | 206 |
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| 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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Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Rice + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,744 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Cooked until very tender in the milk, it gives the dessert its body and soft texture.
- Milk
- Cooks down around the rice, carrying flavor and forming the creamy base.
- Gelatin (in the method)
- Sets the cooled mixture so it holds its shape when turned out of the mold.
- Whipped cream (in the method)
- Folded in lightly before setting, it adds lightness and richness to the texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the rice base and balances the flavor of the maraschino and sherry.
The step that matters
Stir in the whipped cream while the mixture is only beginning to set. If the gelatin has already firmly set, the cream cannot blend evenly and the dessert turns lumpy; if it is still too warm, the cream deflates and the mixture stays loose. Gelatin sets as it cools, so timing this fold matters.
“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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