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Dessert

Rice Pudding

A sweet rice pudding made with milk, sugar, and nutmeg, served with sweetened cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. Combine rice and milk in a pot.

  2. Add sugar and nutmeg.

  3. Stew gently until the rice is soft and has absorbed the milk.

Shape and serve

  1. Fill small cups with the rice, pressing it down firmly, and let it cool.

  2. Turn the cooled rice pudding onto a large flat dish or pile it in a glass bowl.

  3. Serve with sweetened cream.

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

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

  2. Rice + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Starch that softens and absorbs the milk, giving the pudding its body and thick texture.
Milk
Liquid that the rice absorbs as it cooks, supplying moisture and creaminess.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the mild, creamy flavor of the milk.

The step that matters

Stew gently until the rice is soft and has absorbed the milk. Low, gentle heat lets the rice starch hydrate slowly and evenly. Strong heat can scorch the milk on the bottom of the pot and leave the grains firm or unevenly cooked.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Celeryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, sugar, cream. 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.

More rice pudding recipes

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