Skip to main content
Main

Rice Cups

Rice Cups are a sweetened rice dish cooked with milk, water, and egg, served with optional cream, wine, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Tea and rice work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 197 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Rice Cups

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the rice

  1. Combine the rice, water, milk, and salt in a pot.

  2. Heat the mixture until it is boiling hot, but do not let it boil.

  3. Beat the egg with the sugar in a bowl.

  4. Stir the egg mixture into the rice while it is cooking, adding the butter.

Mould and serve

  1. Wet the cups with cold water.

  2. Dip the mixture into the wet cups.

  3. Allow the cups to cool.

  4. Turn the cups out onto a dish.

  5. Serve with sweetened cream flavored with wine and nutmeg, if desired.

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. Tea + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together197 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rice
Its starch thickens with the liquid, giving the cups their body and firm shape.
Egg
Sets when heated, binding the rice mixture so it holds its shape when turned out.
Milk
Adds richness and softness, and its proteins help the mixture set smoothly.
Butter
Adds fat for a softer texture and richer flavor.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the savory-tasting starch.

The step that matters

Stir the egg mixture into the rice without boiling. Egg proteins set when heated, so if the mixture boils or the egg is added too hot without tempering, it can scramble and turn grainy instead of forming a smooth, cohesive custard.

“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.

You might also like

Rice FrittersRice Fritters84 recipesSteamed RiceSteamed Rice48 recipesRice Griddle CakesRice Griddle Cakes28 recipesRice and Cheese CasseroleRice and Cheese Casserole23 recipes