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 ↓
Queen of Cream Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the rice
Soak the washed rice in a double boiler with salt, sugar, and rich milk for 30 minutes.
Place the double boiler over simmering water and cook, stirring occasionally, until the rice softens and swells.
Transfer the rice to a pudding dish and add hot milk.
Bake
Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for about 2 hours.
Fold in the thin crust that forms several times during baking for a creamy texture.
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.
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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rice + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,744 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and milk 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
- Softens and swells during cooking, forming the bulk and body of the pudding.
- Rich milk
- Provides the liquid that thickens as the rice cooks and gives the pudding its creamy richness.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and contributes to browning of the crust during baking.
- Hot milk
- Added before baking to keep the pudding moist and help it cook evenly.
The step that matters
Folding in the crust during baking. Each crust that forms on the surface must be folded back under the pudding. Leaving it on the top leaves a dry, tough skin, while folding it in keeps the texture creamy as the starch and milk set slowly in the oven.
“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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