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Dessert

Rice Moulds

Rice Moulds are sweet rice desserts set in moulds, topped with currant jelly and custard sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tea and rice work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 197 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Rice Moulds

Ingredients

Directions

Make the rice

  1. Simmer the rice in water with sugar and butter until soft.

  2. Stir in a few drops of vanilla.

Mould and serve

  1. Pour the rice into small moulds or tea cups and let it cool.

  2. Turn out the rice and arrange it on a glass dish.

  3. Place a piece of red currant jelly on each mould.

  4. Pour thick custard sauce around the rice.

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. Tea + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together197 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

  3. Tea + vanillatop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together170 recipes

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

  4. Vanilla + red curranttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).

  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
Its starch softens in cooking and sets as it cools, so the moulds hold their shape.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the mild flavour of the rice.
Butter
Adds fat for a richer taste and a softer, smoother texture.
Vanilla
Adds a warm, aromatic flavour to the rice.
Red currant jelly
Adds bright sweet-tart flavour and contrasts with the mild rice.
Thick custard sauce
Adds richness and moisture alongside the firm, set rice.

The step that matters

Letting the rice cool in the moulds. As cooked rice cools, its starch sets and firms up. If it is turned out too soon, the moulds may collapse or lose their shape.

Swap the red currant

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

  1. Peachfits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Red currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tea, rice, sugar, butter, vanilla, sauce. 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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