Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓
Rice Pie
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.
Make the rice filling
Boil the milk in a saucepan.
Add the rice and cook until tender.
Mix flour with a little cold milk and add to the boiling mixture.
Stir in the butter until melted.
Finish and bake
Let the mixture cool, then add the beaten eggs, sugar, and vanilla.
Pour into a pie crust and 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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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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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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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Rice + vanillatop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,352 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
- Cooked until tender, it forms the body of the filling and gives it a soft, pudding-like texture.
- Eggs
- Set when baked, binding the filling so it firms into a sliceable pie.
- Flour
- Thickens the hot milk so the filling becomes creamy rather than watery.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the rice cooks in and the custard-like filling is built on.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the filling.
The step that matters
Let the mixture cool before adding the eggs. Adding beaten eggs to a very hot mixture can scramble them, leaving specks instead of a smooth filling. Cooling first lets the eggs blend evenly and set gently in the oven.
Swap the vanilla
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, rice, flour, butter, egg, sugar):
- Vanillathe original
- Raisinfits about as well
- Coconutfits less well
- Figfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, rice, flour, butter, 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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