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 ↓
Baked Rice Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Wash the rice well in warm water, then rinse it in cold water.
Mix the sugar with a little of the milk.
In a pie dish, combine the rice, sugar mixture, and remaining milk.
Add the shredded dripping on top.
Bake
Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for two hours.
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).
-
Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
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
- Rice
- Its starch thickens the milk as it cooks, giving the pudding its body.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the rice softens in and becomes a creamy custard.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the pudding brown slightly on the surface.
- Dripping
- Adds fat that enriches the flavour and richness of the pudding.
The step that matters
Bake in a slow oven. A slow, gentle heat lets the rice soften and the milk thicken without scorching or curdling. Too high a temperature can cause the milk to boil over or form a dry skin before the rice is tender.
“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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