Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Orange Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the rice
Wash the rice in three or four waters until it turns white.
Steam the rice in the milk and water until cooked.
Make the pudding
In a bowl, mix the cooked rice with the beaten egg yolks, sugar, orange juice, and lemon juice and rind.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.
Top and brown
Beat the egg whites until stiff, then gradually add 2 teaspoons of sugar.
Spread the meringue over the pudding and brown it in the oven for a few minutes.
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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Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,634 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Rice + milktop 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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Rice + orangetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,067 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Yolks thicken the pudding base and whites whip into a stiff meringue topping.
- Rice
- Cooked rice forms the body of the pudding, giving it a soft, spoonable texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps stabilise the whipped egg white meringue.
- Orange juice
- Adds acidity and citrus flavour to the pudding base.
- Milk
- Adds richness and softness as the rice cooks.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites. Whites must be beaten until stiff and the sugar added gradually so the meringue holds its shape and browns evenly. Underbeaten or deflated whites will weep or sink into the pudding.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, egg, sugar, lemon):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Orangethe original
- Blueberryfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, egg, sugar, lemon. 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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