Why it works: Raisin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
Boiled Rice Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the pudding
Heat the milk in a double boiler.
Wash and stone the raisins.
Add the raisins to the milk and cook for 15 minutes until soft.
Stir in the rice and cook for an additional 5 minutes.
Mix the egg yolks with 2 tablespoons of milk.
Add the yolk mixture to the rice mixture along with salt, sugar, and cinnamon.
Cook for 2-3 minutes, then pour the pudding into a serving dish.
Top and brown
Beat the egg whites until light.
Add 1 tablespoon of sugar to the beaten whites.
Spread the egg whites over the pudding.
Brown the top delicately in the oven at 350°F (175°C).
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.
-
Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,390 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
-
Rice + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,137 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
-
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Boiled rice
- Forms the body of the pudding, absorbing milk to give a soft, thick texture.
- Raisins
- Soften in the warm milk, adding moisture and natural sweetness throughout the pudding.
- Eggs
- Yolks thicken the pudding as they cook; whites are beaten to form a light topping.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base that cooks with the rice and raisins into a creamy pudding.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and, in the whites, helps the topping hold and brown.
The step that matters
Cooking the yolks into the rice mixture. Egg yolks thicken when heated gently; if the mixture gets too hot or cooks too long, the yolks can scramble and turn the pudding grainy. Cooking only 2-3 minutes keeps it smooth.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, egg, sugar, milk, cinnamon):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinthe original
- Figfits about as well
- Coconutfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, egg, sugar, milk, cinnamon. 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.
You might also like
Rice Cake120 recipes
Cinnamon Rolls71 recipes
Rice Cream43 recipes
Cinnamon Cake42 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.