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 Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
Wash the rice and add it to the milk and raisins.
Steam the mixture for 1.5 hours.
In a bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar together until well combined.
Stir the beaten yolks into the steamed rice mixture.
Top and brown
Spread the beaten egg whites over the top and brown in the oven.
For a variation, add a layer of jelly between the rice and egg whites.
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.
-
Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Rice + raisintop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together565 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Milk + raisintop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,155 recipes
Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).
-
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rice
- Forms the body of the pudding as it cooks in the milk.
- Milk
- Cooks with the rice to create the creamy, soft base.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the pudding and help it set into a custard-like texture.
- Egg whites
- Whipped and spread on top, they brown and give a light, set topping.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps the yolks blend smoothly.
The step that matters
Brown the egg white topping. Egg whites need to be beaten into a stable foam and baked only until lightly browned; overbaking can make them dry and rubbery, while underbaking leaves them soft and runny.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, rice, egg, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Raisinthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, rice, egg, sugar. 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
You might also like
Rice Cake120 recipes
Rice Cream43 recipes
Rice Jelly42 recipes
Rice Batter Cakes11 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.