Why it works: Rice and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,456 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Rice Blancmangk
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the rice
Mix the ground rice with a little milk until smooth.
Make the pudding
In a saucepan, boil the quart of milk with the lemon peel and almonds.
Sweeten the milk with loaf sugar.
Stir the rice mixture into the boiling milk until thickened.
Wet a mold and pour the mixture into it.
Once set, turn it out and cover with custard.
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.
-
Rice + almondtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,456 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,655 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
-
Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
-
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
- Ground rice
- Thickens the milk as it cooks, giving the pudding its body and set.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the rice thickens into a pudding.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the pudding.
The step that matters
Stir the rice mixture into the boiling milk until thickened. Ground rice settles and can scorch on the bottom of the pan if left unstirred. Constant stirring keeps the starch dispersed, so the mixture thickens evenly and does not catch.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, almond, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, almond, sugar. 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.
More rice pudding recipes
You might also like
Lemon Cake228 recipes
Lemon Ice147 recipes
Rice Cake120 recipes
Lemon Sherbet103 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.