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 ↓
Rice Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Wash the rice in two or three waters.
Place the washed rice in a saucepan with cold water and bring to a boil until swollen.
Drain the rice in a colander.
Break the eggs in a bowl.
Add sugar and milk to the eggs, stirring to combine.
Remove the skin from the suet and shred the suet finely.
Grease a quart dish with clarified dripping or butter.
Assemble and bake
Lay the drained rice in the greased dish.
Pour the milk and egg mixture over the rice.
Sprinkle the shredded suet on top.
Grate the nutmeg over the top.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 40 minutes to 1 hour until ready to serve.
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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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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Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together24,744 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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
- Swells during simmering and bakes into the soft, starchy body of the pudding.
- Eggs
- Set when baked, giving the custard-like structure that holds the pudding together.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that cooks into a creamy, tender custard around the rice.
- Suet
- Melts during baking, adding richness and moisture to the top of the pudding.
- Moist sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the top brown as the pudding bakes.
The step that matters
Bringing the rice to a boil until swollen. Rice must be partly cooked before baking, since the oven and milk custard alone do not soften raw grains fully. Stopping too early leaves grains firm and chalky.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, egg, sugar):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegthe original
- Turmericfits less well
- Gingerfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, 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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