Why it works: Milk and rice 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 ↓
Ground 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.
Make the pudding base
Boil the milk in a saucepan.
Smooth the ground rice with some cold milk, then stir it into the boiling milk.
Let the mixture cook gently for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
Remove the saucepan from heat, add the well-whipped egg, and mix well.
Layer and bake
Pour half of the mixture into a pie dish.
Spread a layer of jam over the first layer of pudding.
Pour the remaining pudding mixture over the jam.
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven 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.
-
Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Rice + eggtop 28% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,350 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the rice cooks in and sets into a creamy custard.
- Ground rice
- Thickens the milk as it cooks, giving the pudding its body and texture.
- Egg
- Adds richness and helps the pudding set as it bakes.
- Jam
- Adds sweetness and fruity flavour in a layer through the pudding.
The step that matters
Remove the saucepan from heat before adding the egg. Adding a beaten egg to very hot mixture can scramble it. Taking the pan off the heat first lets the egg blend in smoothly and keeps the custard texture even.
“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.
More rice pudding recipes
You might also like
Rice Cake120 recipes
Rice Cream43 recipes
Rice Jelly42 recipes
Rice Batter Cakes11 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.