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Dessert

Rice Pudding

A baked rice pudding made with cooked rice, milk, sugar, butter, raisins, egg yolks, nutmeg, and frosted with beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,377 recipes. Both carry alpha-terpineol, which smells lilac, floral. The science ↓

Rice Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, combine the cooked rice, rich milk, sugar, butter, and raisins. Stir well.

  3. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered baking dish.

Bake

  1. Beat the egg yolks and pour gently over the pudding. Grate nutmeg on top.

  2. Bake for 1.5 hours in the preheated oven.

  3. Whip the egg whites and spread gently over the pudding. Return to the oven for a few minutes.

  4. Serve directly from the baking dish.

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. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

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

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

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

  4. Rice + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Rice + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together565 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

Cooked rice
Forms the bulk of the pudding and gives it its body.
Rich milk
Provides liquid that sets with the eggs into a creamy custard.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set, giving the pudding a rich, smooth texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and adds to its browning in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender texture.
Egg whites
Whipped and baked over the top, they set into a light, browned meringue-style topping.

The step that matters

Spreading the whipped egg whites gently over the pudding. Whites deflate if handled roughly, and a gentle spread keeps the whipped foam airy so it bakes into a light topping rather than a dense layer.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Raisinthe original

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

More rice pudding recipes

Baked 88Apple 84with Meringue 40Boiled 38French 30Lemon 29 See all 1,220 →

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