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Dessert

Rice and Strawberry Dessert

A layered dessert of steamed rice and strawberries served with whipped cream and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 and Strawberry Dessert

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rice

  1. Soak the rice in the milk for 30 minutes.

  2. Place the mixture in an earthen dish and steam for 1 hour, stirring occasionally for the first 15 minutes.

Layer and mold

  1. Moisten cups with cold water and place 5 strawberries in the shape of a star at the bottom.

  2. Fill the spaces between the strawberries with cooked rice, then add a layer of rice on top.

  3. Add another layer of strawberries, followed by another layer of rice, pressing firmly into the cups.

Unmold and serve

  1. Let cool, then turn the molds onto saucers.

  2. Serve with whipped cream piled around each mold and sprinkle with sugar.

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. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Rice + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Rice
Forms the body of the dessert and sets firm as it cools after steaming.
New milk
Cooks with the rice to give it a soft, creamy texture and moisture.
Strawberries
Add fruit flavour and a contrasting layer that shows when the dessert is turned out.

The step that matters

Pressing the rice firmly into the cups. Packing the layers firmly removes air gaps so the dessert holds its shape when turned onto saucers. Loose rice can crumble or collapse on unmolding.

“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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