Why it works: Nutmeg and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,377 recipes. Both carry alpha-terpineol, which smells lilac, floral. The science ↓
Boiled Rice Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak the rice in boiled milk overnight.
Mix and cook
In the morning, mix the soaked rice with shredded suet, nutmeg, salt, egg yolks, currants, raisins, and sugar. Stir well and tie the mixture tightly in a cloth.
Boil for 2 hours.
Serve
Serve with any sweet sauce.
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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Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,377 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Rice + nutmegtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,779 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Rice + beeftop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,265 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
-
Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,180 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Whole rice
- Forms the bulk of the pudding and absorbs the milk as it soaks and cooks.
- Milk
- Softens the rice during soaking and gives the pudding its creamy moisture.
- Beef suet
- Adds fat that enriches the pudding and keeps it moist and rich as it cooks.
- Eggs
- Help bind the mixture and set it as it cooks.
- Currants
- Add concentrated sweetness and chewy fruit pieces throughout the pudding.
- Raisins
- Add concentrated sweetness and chewy fruit pieces throughout the pudding.
The step that matters
Tie the cloth tightly. A tightly tied cloth keeps the mixture compact so it holds its shape while boiling. If it is loose, water can enter and the pudding can turn soggy and fall apart.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, beef, nutmeg, egg, raisin, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, beef, nutmeg, egg, raisin, sugar. 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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