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 ↓
A Nice Rice Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the pudding
Combine milk, rice, and coarse sea salt in a pot.
Bring to a boil and cook until the rice is soft.
Remove from heat and stir in the egg yolks and butter. Sweeten to taste.
Transfer the mixture to a dish.
Flavor as desired.
Top and brown
Beat the egg whites with sugar until well combined.
Pour the egg white mixture over the rice pudding and brown in the oven at 400°F (200°C).
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 + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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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 + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,645 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rice
- Cooks down in milk to form the body of the pudding.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the pudding and help it set with a creamy texture.
- Egg whites
- Whip with sugar into a meringue that puffs and browns on top.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the rice softens in and thickens.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the pudding.
The step that matters
Browning the meringue topping. Egg whites beaten with sugar must be fully combined before baking. Under-whipped whites will weep and fail to hold their shape, while the oven heat caramelises the sugar for colour. Watch closely, since sugar browns quickly at high heat.
“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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