Why it works: Rice and milk 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 base
Boil the rice in water until tender.
Pour 1 pint of milk over the cooked rice.
In a bowl, mix the egg yolks, lemon rind, salt, and sugar.
Stir the mixture into the rice and milk, then bake until set.
Top and brown
Beat the egg whites until frothy.
In another bowl, combine the beaten egg whites, 1½ cups sugar, and lemon juice.
Pour this mixture over the baked pudding and lightly brown it in the oven.
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.
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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Forms the body of the pudding as it softens and absorbs the milk.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that sets with the egg yolks into a creamy custard.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the pudding base and add richness when baked.
- Egg whites
- Whip into a light foam that forms the topping and browns in the oven.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps the topping brown lightly.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sweet topping.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites until frothy. Egg whites need to be whipped to a light foam so the topping holds air and bakes into a soft, airy layer rather than a dense, runny one.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, egg, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, 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.
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