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Dessert

A Rich Rice Pudding

A rich rice pudding baked in puff pastry, flavored with currants, brandy, vanilla, and candied citrus.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

A Rich Rice Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil the rice in water with a little salt until soft, then drain.

  2. Beat the eggs, yolk and white separately, then mix with the rice, cream, melted butter, and finely shredded suet.

  3. Add the currants, brandy, essence, and candied fruit, then mix well.

Bake and serve

  1. Place puff paste around the edge of a dish and fill it with the mixture.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven (350 °F / 175 °C) and serve with jam or jelly.

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. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Rice + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,265 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Brandy + vanillatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together806 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).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rice
Forms the bulk of the pudding and absorbs the cream and egg as it sets.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set it into a firm, sliceable custard when baked.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, giving a softer, creamier texture.
Beef suet
Adds fat that enriches the filling and keeps it moist during baking.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour, contributing richness and a smooth texture.
Currants
Add sweetness and chewy bursts of fruit throughout the filling.

The step that matters

Beating the eggs yolk and white separately. Whipping the whites separately and folding them in adds air, which lightens the filling. Mixing them too roughly or overbeating can deflate the batter and make the texture heavy or uneven.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, egg, cream, beef, butter, brandy, vanilla):

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, egg, cream, beef, butter, brandy, 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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