Name: Rice and Raisins
Ingredients: 3 cups boiling water; 1 cup sweet milk; 1 cup rice; ½ cup raisins

Why it works: Milk and rice 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 ↓

Rice and Raisins

Ingredients

3 cups boiling water
1 cup sweet milk
1 cup rice
½ cup raisins

Directions

Combine boiling water, sweet milk, rice, and raisins in a double boiler.
Cook until the rice is tender.

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.

Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,374 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Rice + raisintop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together565 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Milk + raisintop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,155 recipes

Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice: Starch that softens and swells as it cooks, forming the body of the dish.
Sweet milk: Adds richness and creaminess as the rice absorbs the liquid.
Raisins: Add sweetness and chewy texture as they plump in the cooking liquid.