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Dessert

German Rice

A steamed rice pudding made with milk, sugar, breadcrumbs, butter, candied peel, lemon rind, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

German Rice

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Cook the rice in the milk until fully absorbed.

  2. Transfer the rice to a bowl, add the brown sugar, breadcrumbs, butter, candied peel, and grated lemon rind, and mix well.

Finish and steam

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Gently fold them into the mixture.

  3. Pour the mixture into a mold.

  4. Steam for 1 hour.

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 + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  3. Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,366 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  5. Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rice
Absorbs the milk as it cooks, giving the pudding its soft, starchy body.
Milk
Cooks into the rice, providing the moisture that makes the pudding tender.
Eggs
Beaten whites trap air for lightness, and the proteins set as the pudding steams.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a caramel-like depth of flavor.
Breadcrumbs
Soak up liquid and add body, helping the pudding hold together.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, moister texture.

The step that matters

Gently fold the egg whites. Whipped whites trap air that gives the pudding lift. Vigorous stirring knocks that air out, leaving the steamed pudding dense and heavy.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, egg, milk, sugar, butter. 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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