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Savoury Rice Pudding

A baked dish of rice cooked in milk, seasoned with pepper and salt, topped with cheese and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Savoury Rice Pudding

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Savoury Rice Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the rice

  1. Boil the rice in the milk until tender.

  2. Season with pepper and salt.

Layer and bake

  1. Butter a pie dish and layer half of the rice in it.

  2. Sprinkle with 1 ounce of grated cheese.

  3. Add the remaining rice and sprinkle with another ounce of cheese.

  4. Dot small pieces of butter on top.

  5. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until nicely browned.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  4. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  5. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

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

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 milk as it cooks, becoming tender and creamy.
Milk
Cooks with the rice to provide the liquid that softens the grains and gives a creamy body.
Grated cheese
Melts into the layers and browns on the surface, adding savory flavor and richness.
Butter
Adds fat that enriches the dish and helps the top brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake until nicely browned. The surface needs enough oven heat to brown the cheese and butter without drying the rice underneath. Watching the colour rather than only the clock helps achieve a golden top with a moist interior.

“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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