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Dessert

Rice and Peach Pudding

A baked pudding made with rice, peaches, milk, eggs, butter, sugar, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Rice and Peach Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the rice

  1. Boil the rice until tender, then drain.

  2. Add enough boiling milk to cover the rice and let it stew until absorbed.

  3. Stir in sugar and butter while hot.

  4. Quickly stir in the beaten eggs.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter a pudding mold and cover the bottom with bread crumbs.

  2. Layer the rice (1 inch deep), then a layer of peaches, and sprinkle with sugar.

  3. Repeat layers until the mold is filled, finishing with a layer of rice.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 to 40 minutes if using raw peaches, or 15 to 20 minutes if using canned or preserved peaches.

Serve

  1. Carefully turn the pudding out onto a plate and serve with Maryland Sauce.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Milk + peachtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together781 recipes

    Shared aroma: phellandrene (minty).

  5. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rice
Forms the body of the pudding and absorbs the milk as it stews and sets.
Milk
Cooks into the rice, adding moisture and a soft, creamy texture.
Eggs
Bind the rice mixture and help it set firm when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the rice.
Peaches
Add fruity sweetness and moisture between the rice layers.

The step that matters

Quickly stir in the beaten eggs. The rice is still hot, so the eggs must be mixed in fast and evenly. Stirred slowly or left to sit, they can cook unevenly in lumps instead of blending into the rice and setting smoothly when baked.

Swap the peach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, sugar, butter, egg, bread):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Peachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, sugar, butter, egg, bread. 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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