Why it works: Rice and corn match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 933 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Rice Pudding with Lemon
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
Wet the corn-starch in 1 tablespoon of the milk.
In a double boiler, combine the rice and the remaining milk; boil for 10 minutes.
Add the corn-starch and cook for 5 more minutes.
Stir in the butter, salt, and half of the sugar, then transfer to a pudding dish.
Top and serve
Beat the egg whites until stiff, then mix in the remaining sugar.
Spread the egg mixture on top of the pudding and brown it nicely.
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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Rice + corntop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together933 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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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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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cooked rice
- Forms the body of the pudding, soft and bulky once simmered in milk.
- Milk
- Cooks with the rice to create a creamy, moist base.
- Corn-starch
- Thickens the milk so the pudding sets to a smooth, spoonable texture.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a stiff meringue that forms a light topping which browns in the oven.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps the meringue topping brown.
The step that matters
Cook the corn-starch thoroughly. Corn-starch thickens only when heated enough for its granules to swell and gelatinize. Adding it to hot milk and cooking it through gives a smooth, thick custard; undercooking leaves a starchy taste and a runny texture.
“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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