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 ↓
Boiled Rice Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the rice
Wash the rice in cold water.
Place the rice in a cloth with salt.
Tie the cloth loosely to allow for swelling.
Cook the rice
Boil the rice in water for 2 hours or in a saucepan with milk and water for 45 minutes.
Shape and rest
Mix a little milk in a bowl and add the rice to form it.
Cover the bowl to keep it hot for 15 to 20 minutes.
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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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rice
- Its starch absorbs liquid and swells, setting the pudding's body as it cooks.
- Milk
- Adds richness and a creamy texture as it simmers with the rice.
The step that matters
Tie the cloth loosely to allow for swelling. Rice absorbs water and expands considerably as its starch gelatinizes. A tightly tied cloth leaves no room for this expansion, so the grains can be compressed or the cloth can burst during boiling.
“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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