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Dessert

Raisin and Rice Pudding

A sweet pudding made from rice and raisins, flavored with salt, sugar, cream, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,377 recipes. Both carry alpha-terpineol, which smells lilac, floral. The science ↓

Raisin and Rice Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the rice thoroughly.

  2. Place the rice in a porcelain pan and cover with cold water.

Cook

  1. Add salt and the raisins.

  2. Boil slowly until the rice is well done.

Serve

  1. Serve with sugar, cream, and nutmeg sauce.

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. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  2. Rice + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,779 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Rice + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together565 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 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
Forms the pudding's body as its starch swells and softens during long simmering.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness as they plump in the cooking liquid.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the starchy rice and tart-edged fruit.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, softening the flavor and texture of the cooked rice.
Nutmeg
Contributes warm, aromatic spice that complements the sweet rice and raisins.

The step that matters

Boil slowly until the rice is well done. Rice starch gelatinizes and the grains absorb water gradually over low heat. Boiling too hard can scorch the bottom of the pan or leave the grains split and uneven, while too little cooking leaves them firm.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Raisinthe original
  4. Figfits about as well

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