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 says “a steady oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Cook the rice
Boil the rice in 2 cups of milk until tender.
Remove from heat and mix in the beaten eggs, sugar, salt, and remaining milk.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture into a pudding dish.
Dot the surface with small pieces of butter.
Bake in a steady oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.
Serve with brandy sauce.
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 + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,645 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rice
- Cooked in milk until tender, it forms the body of the pudding.
- Eggs
- Set as the pudding bakes, binding the mixture into a custard-like texture.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that cooks the rice and keeps the pudding moist and creamy.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the top brown lightly during baking.
- Butter
- Melts over the surface, adding richness and fat for flavor and browning.
The step that matters
Bake in a steady oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.. The eggs set gently at moderate heat. If the oven is too hot, the custard can curdle, turn grainy, or puff and crack.
“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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