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Dessert

A Good Ground Rice Pudding

A sweet pudding made from ground rice, milk, butter, sugar, eggs, lemon rind, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

A Good Ground Rice Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Mix very smoothly five ounces of flour of rice (or of ground rice, if preferred) with half a pint of milk.

  2. Pour the mixture into a pint and a half more which is boiling fast.

  3. Keep it stirred constantly over a gentle fire from ten to twelve minutes, careful not to let it burn to the pan.

  4. Add to it before it is taken from the fire a quarter of a pound of good butter, from five to six ounces of sugar, roughly powdered, and a few grains of salt.

  5. Turn it into a pan, and stir it for a few minutes to prevent its hardening at the top.

  6. Then mix with it, by degrees but quickly, the yolks of eight eggs, and the whites of two, the grated or rasped rind of a fine lemon, and a glass of brandy.

Bake and serve

  1. Lay a border of rich paste round a buttered dish.

  2. Pour in the pudding.

  3. Strain a little clarified butter over the top.

  4. Moisten the paste with a brush, or small bunch of feathers dipped in cold water.

  5. Sift plenty of sugar on it, but less over the pudding itself.

  6. Send it to a very gentle oven to be baked for three-quarters of an hour.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1058Calories
32 gProtein
27 gFat
169 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Rice1 cup cooked (158g) white206
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Eliza Acton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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.

  1. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Rice + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour of rice
Thickens the milk into a smooth, set custard base as it cooks.
Eggs
Enrich and set the pudding, giving it body when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the pudding.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and adds to its browning on the surface.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the rice flour thickens.

The step that matters

Keep the base stirred over gentle heat. Starch-thickened mixtures scorch easily on the pan bottom and can lump if heat is too high or stirring stops, so constant stirring over gentle heat keeps the base smooth and unburnt.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, rice, sugar, almond, milk, butter, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, rice, sugar, almond, milk, butter, 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.

More rice pudding recipes

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