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 ↓
Rice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
Stew the rice in 3 cups of milk until soft.
Add 2 cups of milk, beaten egg yolks, and sugar; let it boil briefly.
Pour the mixture into a custard dish.
Make the frosting and finish
Make frosting by beating the egg whites with sugar until stiff.
Flavor the frosting and brown it delicately.
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.
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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rice + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,744 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Softens as it simmers in milk, giving the pudding its body and bulk.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that cooks the rice and forms the creamy base.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard as they heat and add richness to the pudding.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps stabilise the beaten egg white frosting.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a foam that sets stiff and forms the frosting structure.
The step that matters
Boiling the milk, egg yolk and sugar mixture. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but if the mixture gets too hot or boils too long the proteins can curdle and turn grainy. A brief boil keeps the custard smooth.
“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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