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 Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the rice in two or three waters, then place it in a saucepan with cold water and bring to a boil until it swells.
On a cutting board, trim the skin from the suet and shred it finely.
Grease a quart dish with clarified dripping or butter.
In a bowl, break two eggs and add the sugar and milk, stirring to combine.
Assemble and bake
Drain the rice well and layer it in the greased dish.
Pour the milk and egg mixture over the rice, then sprinkle the shredded suet on top.
Grate the nutmeg over the top of the pudding.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 40 minutes to 1 hour until set.
Serve
Serve warm.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rice + nutmegtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,779 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,685 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Forms the body of the pudding, absorbing the custard as it bakes.
- Eggs (in the method)
- Set the milk mixture as it bakes, giving the pudding a firm, sliceable texture.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid custard that cooks around the rice and gives the pudding its creamy texture.
- Moist sugar
- Adds sweetness and a soft, moist character to the custard.
- Suet
- Adds richness and fat, melting into the pudding to keep it tender.
The step that matters
Bake until set. Baking long enough lets the egg proteins coagulate and firm the custard. Stopping too early leaves the pudding loose, while overbaking can make it dry and curdled.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, sugar, butter):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegthe original
- Gingerfits less well
- Turmericfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, sugar, butter. 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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