Skip to main content
Dessert

A Rich Rice Pudding

A baked rice pudding made with rice, eggs, cream, butter, suet, currants, brandy, peach water, nutmeg, and lemon peel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

A Rich Rice Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the rice

  1. Boil the rice in water with salt until tender.

  2. Drain the rice.

Assemble and bake

  1. Mix the rice with the eggs, cream, melted butter, suet, currants, brandy, peach water, nutmeg, and lemon peel.

  2. Place pastry around the edge of a baking dish.

  3. Fill the dish with the mixture.

  4. Top with slices of candied fruit if desired.

  5. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Rice + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,265 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Rice + peachtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together171 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Brandy + peachtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together339 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm when baked.
Rice
Forms the body of the pudding, giving it bulk and a soft, tender texture.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the custard-like pudding tender.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, contributing to a smooth, tender crumb.
Beef suet or marrow
Adds richness and fat, giving a moist, savoury depth to the pudding.
Currants
Add sweetness and chewy texture scattered through the pudding.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Baking in a moderate oven sets the egg proteins so the mixture firms into a sliceable pudding. Underbaking leaves it loose and wet in the center, while overbaking can make the eggs curdle and turn it dry and rubbery.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, egg, cream, butter, beef, brandy, peach):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, egg, cream, butter, beef, brandy, peach. 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

Lemon Rice PuddingLemon Rice Pudding19 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesLemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipes