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
Make the custard
Dissolve the cornstarch in a little milk, then stir in the remaining milk.
Beat the egg yolks with the sugar and add to the milk mixture.
Heat the mixture in a custard kettle until hot, then add the hot rice.
Stir carefully until it thickens like boiled custard, then remove from heat and add flavoring.
Transfer to a pudding dish and place in the oven.
Top and brown
Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks, adding a little sugar and flavoring.
Remove the pudding from the oven when slightly colored, spread the egg white froth on top, and return to the oven for a few minutes until lightly browned.
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 + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Eggs
- Yolks thicken the custard, and whites whip into a froth that browns on top.
- Cornstarch
- Starch swells in the hot milk, thickening the custard so it sets smoothly.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard and gives the pudding its body.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps the egg white topping hold its peaks and brown.
- Boiled rice
- Provides the bulk and tender texture of the pudding within the custard.
The step that matters
Stirring the custard as it thickens. Egg proteins and starch thicken the mixture as it heats, but overheating or stopping the stirring can scorch the bottom or curdle the eggs, leaving lumps instead of a smooth custard.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, sugar, egg. 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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