Why it works: Raisin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
Rice 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
Wash the rice thoroughly.
Bake
Combine the rice with the milk, sugar, raisins, and cinnamon in a baking dish.
Beat the eggs and stir them into the mixture.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 2 hours.
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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Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,390 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Rice + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,137 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the rice softens in and becomes creamy as it bakes.
- Rice
- Absorbs the milk as it cooks, giving the pudding its body and structure.
- Eggs
- Set during baking to thicken the custard and bind the pudding together.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the top brown lightly in the oven.
The step that matters
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 2 hours. Baking long and gently lets the rice absorb the milk and the eggs set evenly. Too much heat can curdle the eggs or scorch the milk, leaving a grainy or stuck pudding.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, rice, egg, cinnamon):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinthe original
- Figfits about as well
- Coconutfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, rice, egg, cinnamon. 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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