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 and tie it 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.
Combine and serve
In a bowl, add a little milk and stir.
Add the cooked rice to the bowl to form it.
Cover 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
- Starch swells and softens as it cooks, giving the pudding its body and tender texture.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and richness, and its milk sugars give a mild sweetness.
The step that matters
Tie the cloth loosely. Rice absorbs water and swells considerably as it cooks. A tight tie leaves no room for expansion, so the rice can be squeezed, misshapen, or split the cloth.
“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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