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 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.
Make the base
Boil the rice in water until soft.
Add cold milk, butter, egg yolks, and grated lemon rind to the rice and mix well.
Bake the mixture in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 minutes.
Top and serve
Beat the egg whites until stiff, then stir in sugar and lemon juice.
Pour the egg white mixture over the baked pudding and brown it in the oven.
Serve cold.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,645 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rice
- Softened by boiling, it forms the bulk and body of the pudding.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the custard and help it set firmly when baked.
- Egg whites
- Beaten stiff, they form a light meringue topping that browns in the oven.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and richness, giving the pudding a creamy texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the meringue topping and helps it brown.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites until stiff. Egg whites must be beaten until they hold firm peaks, since trapped air gives the meringue its lift and light texture. Under-beaten whites collapse and weep, while sugar added correctly keeps the foam stable.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, egg, butter, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, egg, butter, 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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