Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Rice Flour 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.
Thicken the base
In a pot, bring 1 quart of water to a boil.
Dampen 3 tablespoons of rice flour in ½ cup of cold water.
Stir the flour mixture into the boiling water constantly until it thickens.
Make the custard
Add 1 pint of fresh milk and 1 egg‑sized piece of butter, stirring until combined.
Beat in 5 eggs and 8 ounces of sugar until smooth.
Bake
Pour the mixture into a baking dish set in a pan of water.
Season with nutmeg and brandy to taste.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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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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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Rice + nutmegtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,779 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 flour
- Swells in hot water as its starch gelatinizes, thickening the base into a smooth, pudding-like body.
- Eggs
- Coagulate on baking, giving the pudding its set structure and a rich, custardy texture.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and liquid that the flour and eggs thicken and set.
- Butter
- Contributes fat for richness and a smoother, softer mouthfeel.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the savory-leaning richness of the eggs and butter.
The step that matters
Stir the flour mixture into the boiling water constantly until it thickens.. Dampened rice flour clumps if it is not stirred while it meets hot liquid. Constant stirring disperses the flour evenly so its starch swells and thickens the base smoothly without lumps.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, flour, milk, egg, butter, sugar, brandy):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegthe original
- Turmericfits less well
- Gingerfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, flour, milk, egg, butter, sugar, brandy. 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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