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 ↓
Lemon Rice 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.
Prepare the rice
Cook the rice in water until tender.
Pour the cooked rice into a baking dish.
Stir in the grated rind of one lemon and 1 tablespoon of sugar.
Make the custard and bake
Heat the milk in a separate pot.
Whisk in the egg yolks and sugar to taste.
Stir the custard through the rice mixture.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.
Make the meringue and finish
Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks.
Add 1 tablespoon of sugar for each egg.
Fold the lemon juice into the whipped egg whites.
Spread the lemon meringue on top of the pudding.
Bake until lightly browned.
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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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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 thick, starchy body that the custard sets around.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base and moisture for the custard.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard and add richness as they set with heat.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into foam that gives the meringue its light, airy structure.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps stabilise the whipped egg white foam.
- Lemon
- Its rind adds aroma and its juice adds bright acidity.
The step that matters
Whipping the egg whites to stiff peaks. Under-whipped whites will not hold a stable foam, so the meringue can weep or sink. Sugar added gradually helps the foam hold its shape while baking.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, sugar, milk, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, sugar, milk, egg. 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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