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 ↓
Meringue of Rice
Ingredients
Directions
Make the rice base
In a saucepan, combine rice and milk. Simmer over low heat until the rice swells.
Add cream and continue to simmer until thickened. Remove from heat.
Mix in crumbled ratafia biscuits, caster sugar, and lemon peel with the rice.
Finish and serve
Whip the egg whites until frothy, then quickly stir into the rice mixture.
Transfer to a serving dish and place in the oven to brown.
Sprinkle sugar on top before serving.
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 + biscuittop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together109 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Biscuit + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together697 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rice
- Swells and thickens with milk to form the creamy body of the dish.
- Milk
- Cooks with the rice to create a soft, creamy base.
- Cream
- Adds richness and fat, helping the mixture thicken smoothly.
- Eggs
- Whipped whites add lightness and help the dish puff and set in the oven.
- Caster sugar
- Sweetens the dish and helps it brown on top.
The step that matters
Folding in the whipped egg whites. Whites must be whipped to frothy and stirred in quickly so they keep their air. Overmixing or letting them deflate makes the dish dense rather than light.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, cream, biscuit, sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, cream, biscuit, sugar, egg. 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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