Why it works: Rice and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,137 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Rice Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard base
Combine milk and salt in a saucepan, then place the saucepan in another pan with boiling water.
Mix corn starch with a little cold milk or water, then stir it into the hot milk.
Cook until it boils for 3 minutes, then remove from heat and stir in the butter.
Beat the egg yolks with the sugar and stir them into the mixture.
Add the rice, cinnamon, and brandy, mixing well.
Bake
Beat the egg whites with 1 tablespoon of sugar until stiff, then fold them into the mixture.
Pour into a pudding pan, place it in another pan with hot water, and bake for 30 minutes.
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 + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,137 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Rice + corntop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together933 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Corn + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together647 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Egg yolks enrich and thicken the custard, while whipped whites lighten the pudding.
- Corn starch
- Starch thickens the hot milk so the pudding sets with a soft, spoonable body.
- Butter
- Fat adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the custard.
- Boiled rice
- Rice forms the body of the pudding, absorbing the custard and giving it bulk.
- White granulated sugar
- Sugar sweetens the custard and helps stabilise the whipped egg whites.
The step that matters
Folding in the stiff egg whites. Whites must be beaten until stiff but folded gently, or the air is knocked out and the pudding bakes flat and dense instead of light.
“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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