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Rice Pudding, with Stewed Apricots

A creamy rice pudding flavored with vanilla and topped with stewed apricots.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 608 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Rice Pudding, with Stewed Apricots

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the pudding

  1. Combine rice and milk in a saucepan.

  2. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the rice is tender and the mixture thickens.

  3. Stir in sugar and vanilla extract.

  4. Cook for an additional 5 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve the rice pudding warm or chilled, topped with stewed apricots.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Vanilla + apricottop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together608 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Rice + vanillatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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
Softens as it simmers in milk and thickens the pudding into a creamy texture.
Milk
Provides the liquid that the rice absorbs and the richness that makes the pudding creamy.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the mild flavor of the milk and rice.
Stewed apricots
Adds fruity sweetness and acidity that contrasts with the creamy pudding.

The step that matters

Cooking the rice in milk. Milk scorches easily on the bottom of a pan, so stirring over medium heat keeps the rice from sticking and burning while it softens and thickens.

Swap the apricot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, sugar, vanilla):

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Blueberryfits better
  4. Apricotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, sugar, vanilla. 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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