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Dessert

Rice Cup Puddings

A baked rice pudding served in individual cups, flavored with milk, cream, butter, eggs, sugar, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 Cup Puddings

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 the rice

  1. Pick and wash the rice.

  2. Boil the rice in milk until very thick and dry.

Make the custard

  1. Add the rich milk or cream and butter while hot.

  2. Let the mixture cool slightly, then add the beaten eggs and sugar to taste.

  3. Butter your cups and pour in the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

  2. Grate nutmeg over the top and serve with cream.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 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

Rice
Starch that thickens as it cooks in milk, giving the pudding its body.
Milk
Liquid that the rice absorbs and cooks in, forming the base of the pudding.
Eggs
Set when baked, binding the pudding so it holds its shape in the cups.
Butter
Adds fat for a rich mouthfeel and smooth texture.
Rich milk or cream
Adds fat and richness, softening the texture of the pudding.

The step that matters

Boil the rice in milk until very thick and dry. The rice must cook down fully and thicken before the eggs are added. Undercooked rice stays firm, and a mixture that is too wet will bake loose instead of setting into cups.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Turmericfits less well
  4. Gingerfits less well

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