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 with Milk and Egg
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the rice
Wash the rice and cook it in a large pot of boiling water with salt until tender, but not mushy.
Drain the rice in a colander, shaking off all the water.
Make the pudding
Return the rice to a double boiler and stir in the boiling milk mixed with the beaten eggs.
Cook gently for a few minutes until much of the milk is absorbed.
Serve
Serve with sugar and cream.
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).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rice
- Its starch thickens as it cooks in the milk, giving the pudding its body.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that the rice absorbs, creating a creamy, soft texture.
- Eggs
- Set during gentle heating, helping to thicken and enrich the pudding.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness, added at serving to taste.
The step that matters
Cook gently for a few minutes until much of the milk is absorbed. Egg proteins set at higher temperatures and can curdle or turn grainy if the heat is too high. Gentle heat lets the eggs thicken the milk smoothly while the rice absorbs it.
“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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