Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Rice Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the rice
Wash the rice.
Boil the rice until very soft.
Drain the rice and let it cool.
Make the custard
Combine the butter and sugar in a pan.
Stir until light and fluffy.
Add the mixed spice and rose water to the butter and sugar mixture.
Beat the eggs until light.
Stir the eggs gradually into the milk.
Combine the egg and milk mixture with the butter and sugar.
Alternate the mixture with the cooled rice.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture into a baking dish.
Grate nutmeg over the top.
Fold in floured currants or raisins before baking.
Bake until set.
Let cool.
Serve cold or at room temperature.
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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Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,917 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,557 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
-
Rice + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,137 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 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
- Rice
- Forms the body of the pudding, giving it bulk and a soft, tender texture.
- Eggs
- Set when baked, binding the pudding and giving it a custard-like structure.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, contributing to a smooth, tender crumb.
- Milk
- Provides liquid that cooks with the eggs and rice into a moist, creamy base.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps create a light, fluffy base when creamed with butter.
The step that matters
Beat the eggs until light and add them gradually to the milk. Adding eggs too fast or to cold, unmixed ingredients can curdle or unevenly blend the custard. Gradual addition keeps the mixture smooth before it bakes and sets.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, butter, sugar, milk, egg, nutmeg, cinnamon):
- Cardamomfits better
- Clovefits better
- Allspicefits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, butter, sugar, milk, egg, nutmeg, 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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