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Dessert

Rice Cups

Sweetened rice mixed with figs or raisins, molded into cups, chilled, and served with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and fig match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 103 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Rice Cups

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cook the rice according to package instructions until tender.

  2. Sweeten the rice to taste.

  3. Stir in the chopped figs or raisins.

Set and serve

  1. Mould the mixture into cups and refrigerate until cold.

  2. Serve with whipped cream.

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 + figtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together103 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

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

  3. Fig + creamtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together523 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rice
Provides the bulk and starch that thickens and firms as the mixture cools.
Figs or raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Refrigerate until cold. As cooked rice cools, its starch sets and firms, so the pudding holds its shape when turned out of the cups. Unmoulding before it is fully cold can leave the cups slumping or sticking.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Avocadofits better
  4. Figthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, cream. 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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