Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Rice Panada
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the rice
Boil the washed rice in 1 gallon of water for 1 hour.
Add ¾ ounce of sugar and 2 ounces of salt.
Thicken and serve
Mix with cold water to make a thin paste with 1 pound of flour or oatmeal and ½ ounce of curry powder.
Add the mixture to the rice, boil for 20 minutes, and serve.
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.
-
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Rice + flourtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,611 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Rice + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,744 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
- Its starch swells and softens during boiling, forming the body of the pudding.
- Flour or oatmeal
- Its starch thickens the liquid into a creamy, spoonable texture.
- Curry powder
- Adds aroma and spice flavour to the pudding.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to balance the savoury spice.
The step that matters
Adding the thin paste to the rice. The flour or oatmeal paste is made in cold water so its starch stays dispersed. Stirring it into the hot rice mixture while it is hot and moving helps the starch thicken evenly, without lumps forming in the pudding.
“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.
More rice pudding recipes
You might also like
The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.
Rice Cake120 recipes
Rice Cream43 recipes
Rice Jelly42 recipes
Rice Batter Cakes11 recipes