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Dessert

Rice Macaroon Pudding

A baked pudding of rice, milk, sugar, vanilla, and almond macaroons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Rice Macaroon Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the rice

  1. Cook the rice in water until tender.

  2. Drain and rinse the rice with cold water.

  3. Place the rice in the oven to dry.

Make the custard base

  1. Heat the milk in a double boiler.

  2. Add salt, sugar, and rice, and cook until somewhat thickened.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a greased baking dish.

  4. Add margarine and vanilla.

Bake

  1. Bake for 30 minutes.

  2. Place the macaroons on top.

  3. Beat the egg and pour it over the pudding.

  4. Bake for an additional hour at a low temperature.

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. Almond + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Rice + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
Forms the body of the pudding as its starch thickens and softens during cooking.
Egg
Sets when baked, giving the pudding structure and a firmer, custard-like texture.
Milk
Provides the liquid base that thickens around the rice and gives a creamy texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and contributes to browning on the baked surface.
Almond macaroons
Add almond flavor and a crisp, chewy topping as they bake.
Margarine
Adds fat, which contributes richness and a softer mouthfeel to the pudding.

The step that matters

Add the egg only after the base has cooled slightly before baking. Eggs set when heated; if the mixture is too hot when the egg is poured in, it can curdle or scramble, leaving the pudding grainy rather than smooth.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Cocoafits less well
  4. Hazelnutfits less well

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