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Dessert

Rice Imperial

A gelatinous rice pudding made with milk, sugar, vanilla, egg whites, whipped cream, citron, and raisins or candied cherries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Rice Imperial

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the rice

  1. Boil the rice in enough milk until soft.

  2. Add sugar and vanilla to taste, and cook until well done.

  3. Remove from heat and let it cool completely.

Set and serve

  1. Soak the gelatine in a little water until dissolved.

  2. Mix the cooled rice, dissolved gelatine, whipped cream, sliced citron, and raisins or candied cherries together.

  3. Pour the mixture into a mold and refrigerate for 3 hours.

  4. Serve with a rich custard or cream.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Vanilla + coffeetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,391 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 cooks soft and bulks up the dessert.
Gelatine
Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when chilled and turned out of the mold.
Whipped cream
Adds richness and a light, airy texture to the set pudding.
Egg whites
Beaten egg whites add lightness and air to the mixture.

The step that matters

Let the cooked rice cool completely before mixing. Warm rice can melt the whipped cream and stop the gelatine from setting evenly, so the pudding may turn out loose or greasy.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, sugar, vanilla, egg, coffee, cream):

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Strawberryfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, sugar, vanilla, egg, coffee, cream. 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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