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 ↓
Genesee Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Preheat a kettle of water for steaming.
Make the pudding
Combine the milk, boiled rice, 3 egg yolks, and ½ cup sugar in a bowl.
Cook the mixture over the kettle of water, stirring until it thickens like custard.
Top and serve
Beat the 3 egg whites until stiff peaks form, then gradually add the remaining ½ cup sugar.
Spread the beaten egg whites on top of the pudding while it is still warm.
Chill the pudding before serving.
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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Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 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).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rice + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,744 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that thickens into a custard as it cooks.
- Boiled rice
- Provides the body and bulk of the pudding.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard as they set with gentle heat.
- Egg whites
- Whipped and spread on top to form a light, airy topping.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps stabilise the whipped egg white topping.
The step that matters
Cooking the custard over the steaming water. Egg yolks set at a gentle heat; if the mixture gets too hot it can curdle or turn grainy. Stirring steadily over indirect steam keeps the custard smooth as it thickens.
“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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