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Dessert

Rice Custard

A custard made with cooked rice, milk, eggs, sugar, and topped with fruit jam and meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,374 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Rice Custard

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the custard

  1. Break up the cold cooked rice and soak it in hot milk until soft.

  2. Beat the egg yolks and sugar together, then add the hot milk.

  3. Return the mixture to a double boiler and stir constantly until the custard is smooth and the eggs are cooked.

  4. Stir in the salt and pour into a serving dish.

  5. Spread the apple jelly or raspberry jam over the top once slightly cooled.

Top and bake

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then add powdered sugar and lemon juice.

  2. Pile the egg white mixture lightly over the custard and bake in the oven at 400°F (200°C) for a few minutes until golden brown.

  3. Serve cold.

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

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

  2. Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  3. Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,366 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Rice + appletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,311 recipes

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

  5. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 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

Cooked rice
Forms the body of the custard as it softens in hot milk and thickens the dessert.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness when gently cooked.
Egg whites
Whip into a stiff foam that forms a light topping and browns in the oven.
Milk
Provides the liquid that softens the rice and sets into a smooth custard.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps the yolks stay smooth when blended.
Apple jelly or raspberry jam
Adds a fruity sweetness and a glossy layer between custard and topping.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard over a double boiler. Stirring constantly over gentle heat keeps the egg yolks from scrambling. Once they cook smoothly they thicken the milk evenly into a custard.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Applethe original

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