Why it works: Rice and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,374 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. 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 the rice
Swell the rice in milk or water.
Combine and bake
In a deep dish, combine the swollen rice, milk, eggs, salt, mace, and sugar.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.
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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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rice + macetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together932 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Milk + macetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,346 recipes
Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Rice
- Forms the body of the pudding and thickens as its starch absorbs liquid and softens.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base that the eggs set into a creamy custard.
- Eggs
- Coagulate during baking to set the pudding and hold it together.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the pudding brown lightly at the surface.
- Ground mace
- Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavor to the custard.
The step that matters
Bake until set. Egg proteins firm as the custard heats. Underbaked pudding stays runny, while overbaking makes the eggs curdle and turn grainy or weepy. Check for a set center rather than relying on time alone.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, egg, sugar):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Turmericfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, egg, 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.
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