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Dessert

Dutch Rice Pudding

A baked rice pudding made with milk, cinnamon, eggs, sugar, nutmeg, lemon peel, butter, and puff pastry lining.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Dutch Rice Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the rice

  1. Soak the rice in warm water for 30 minutes.

  2. Drain the rice.

Make the filling

  1. Combine the rice, milk, and cinnamon in a saucepan.

  2. Simmer until the rice is tender.

  3. Once the mixture has cooled, mix in the beaten eggs, sugar, grated nutmeg, lemon peel, and melted butter.

Bake

  1. Line a dish or mold with puff pastry.

  2. Pour the mixture into the lined dish.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until set.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Rice + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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 and thickens as it absorbs milk and cooks.
Eggs
Set during baking to bind the filling into a sliceable custard.
Milk
Provides moisture and creaminess, cooking gently with the rice.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the eggs and dairy.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth texture to the filling.
Puff pastry
Forms a crisp, flaky shell that holds the filling while it bakes.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before adding the eggs. Beaten eggs added to very hot rice and milk can scramble or curdle. Cooling first lets the eggs blend smoothly and set evenly into a custard when baked.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits about as well
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, cinnamon, egg, sugar, nutmeg, 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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