Name: Rice Pudding, Baked
Ingredients: ½ cup rice; 2 cups milk; 2 oz fresh butter; 2 oz beef marrow; 1 cup currants; 2 tablespoons brandy; ¼ teaspoon nutmeg; ½ cup sugar; rind of ½ lemon

Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Rice Pudding, Baked

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Infuse the lemon rind in the milk until well flavored.
Boil the rice in water with a small amount of salt until tender, then drain thoroughly.
Beat the eggs and mix in the strained milk, butter, marrow, currants, sugar, nutmeg, and rice.
Line a baking dish with puff pastry, pour in the mixture, and bake at 300°F (150°C) for about 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.

Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,374 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Rice + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,779 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Rice + beeftop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,265 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

Swap the currant

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

Vanillafits better
Coconutfits better
Figfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, butter, beef, brandy, nutmeg, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.