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Rice and Date Pudding

A baked pudding made with rice, dates, eggs, milk, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Rice and Date Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Boil the rice in water until cooked.

  2. Butter a pudding dish.

Assemble

  1. Layer half the dates in the dish, followed by half the rice, then the remaining dates, and top with the remaining rice.

  2. In a bowl, beat the eggs, then add the milk, sugar, and salt.

  3. Pour the egg mixture over the rice and fruit layers.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 25 to 30 minutes.

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

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

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

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

  3. Dates + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Forms the bulk of the pudding, giving it body and a soft, absorbent texture.
Dates
Add natural sweetness and a chewy, sticky texture between the rice layers.
Milk
Provides liquid that cooks with the eggs into a tender, custardy set.
Eggs
Bind the milk mixture and set during baking to hold the pudding together.
Granulated sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the custard brown lightly at the surface.

The step that matters

Pour the egg mixture over the rice and fruit layers.. The egg and milk mixture must soak evenly through the rice before baking. Pouring it slowly lets the rice absorb liquid, which helps the pudding set moist rather than dry or patchy.

Swap the dates

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Datesthe original

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