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 ↓
Bishops Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the rice base
Boil nearly all the milk in a saucepan.
Add the ground rice to the boiling milk and cook for 5 to 10 minutes.
Stir in the sugar and remove from heat to cool.
Once cooled, mix in the egg yolks.
Bake the pudding
Grease a pie dish and spread 3 tablespoons of jam in the bottom.
Pour the rice mixture over the jam and bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until firm.
Remove from the oven and spread more jam on top.
Top and brown
Whisk the egg whites with 1 oz of caster sugar until stiff peaks form.
Pile the whipped egg whites on top of the pudding and bake in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C) until nicely browned.
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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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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Sugar + lemontop 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).
Sugar and lemon 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
- Egg yolks
- Enriches the rice custard and helps it set firm when baked.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks to form a light meringue that browns on top.
- Ground rice
- Thickens the milk into a soft custard base that holds its shape when baked.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard, setting with the eggs and rice.
- Jam
- Adds sweetness and fruity flavor in layers above and below the custard.
- Caster sugar
- Sweetens the meringue and helps the whites hold stable, glossy peaks.
The step that matters
Whipping the egg whites to stiff peaks. Egg whites must be beaten until stiff and free of any fat or yolk, because they trap air to create the meringue's volume. Under-whipped or greasy whites collapse and weep in the oven.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, rice, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, rice, egg. 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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