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Dessert

Plain Rice Pudding

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Plain Rice Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the rice

  1. Wash and boil the rice until soft, then drain the water.

  2. Add the butter to the rice and let it cool.

Make the mixture

  1. Stir in the sugar and nutmeg.

  2. Beat the eggs separately until light, then combine them with the rice mixture.

  3. Gradually stir in the milk.

  4. If desired, add raisins before baking.

Bake

  1. Butter a pudding dish and pour in the mixture.

  2. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for one hour.

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. Butter + milktop 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, giving it bulk and a soft, tender texture as it cooks.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set into a custard-like texture when baked.
Milk
Provides liquid that cooks with the rice and eggs, adding moisture and creaminess.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the pudding brown lightly on the surface during baking.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing a smoother mouthfeel and flavor.

The step that matters

Beat the eggs separately until light, then combine them with the rice mixture. Beating the eggs until light incorporates air and helps them blend evenly into the mixture, so the eggs set uniformly rather than leaving streaks or dense pockets when baked.

Swap the raisin

The recipe marks raisin as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, butter, sugar, nutmeg, egg, milk):

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

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