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Dessert

Rice Pudding

A sweet rice pudding made with rice, milk, butter, eggs, sugar, nutmeg, raisins, and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,377 recipes. Both carry alpha-terpineol, which smells lilac, floral. The science ↓

Rice Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the rice

  1. Wash the rice well.

  2. Cover the rice with water.

  3. Boil for a few minutes.

  4. Pour off the water.

  5. Add the milk.

  6. Stir. Remove from heat.

  7. Let cool.

Make the pudding

  1. Mix in the butter, sugar and nutmeg.

  2. Mix in the beaten eggs.

  3. If the mixture is thick, add some milk.

  4. Stir in the raisins.

Top and bake

  1. Beat the egg white.

  2. Add sugar.

  3. Beat until light and fluffy.

  4. Spread the egg white mixture on top.

  5. Bake in a 400°F oven for a few moments.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

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

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

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

  4. Rice + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Rice + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together565 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 softens and absorbs the milk.
Milk
Provides the liquid that cooks the rice and gives the pudding its creamy texture.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set into a custard-like texture.
Egg white
Beaten to a foam, it creates a light, fluffy topping that browns in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and a soft, smooth mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Beat the egg white until light and fluffy. Egg white traps air when beaten, and it is the air that makes the topping light. Under-beaten whites stay runny and sink, while over-beaten whites turn dry and grainy.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, egg, butter, sugar, nutmeg. 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

Baked 88Apple 84with Meringue 40Boiled 38French 30Lemon 29 See all 1,220 →

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