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Dessert

Rice Pie

Rice pie is a baked dish made with cooked rice, eggs, cream, sugar, salt, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,779 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Rice Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil the rice in water until tender.

  2. In a bowl, combine the cooked rice, eggs, cream, sugar, salt, and nutmeg. Mix well until all ingredients are fully incorporated.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a pie crust and bake 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. Rice + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  3. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Sugar + nutmegtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together23,364 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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 bulk of the filling, giving the pie its body and substance.
Eggs
Set during baking to bind the filling into a sliceable custard-like texture.
Heavy cream
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the filling tender as it bakes.
White sugar
Sweetens the filling and aids browning on the surface.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Eggs set as they heat, and overbaking makes them curdle and turn rubbery, while underbaking leaves the filling runny. Watch for a filling that is firm at the edges with only a slight wobble in the center.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, egg, cream, sugar):

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Turmericfits less well
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, egg, cream, sugar. 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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