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Dessert

Rice Dessert

A sweet dessert made from cooked rice, cream, powdered sugar, vanilla, and gelatin, chilled until firm.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Rice Dessert

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the rice

  1. Wash the rice until the water drains clear.

  2. Boil 2 quarts of water with 1-2 teaspoons of salt.

  3. Add the rice to the boiling water.

  4. Cook for 20-25 minutes.

  5. Drain the rice in a colander.

  6. Set the drained rice in the oven for 5 minutes.

Make the mixture

  1. Soak the gelatin in cold water for 30 minutes.

  2. Dissolve the gelatin in a hot water bath.

  3. Whip the cream.

  4. Add powdered sugar and vanilla to the whipped cream.

  5. Mix the cooled rice into the cream mixture.

  6. Strain the dissolved gelatin into the mixture, stirring gently.

Set in molds

  1. Dip the molds in cold water.

  2. Fill the molds with the dessert mixture.

  3. Refrigerate until hardened.

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. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. Rice + vanillatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,352 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

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

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

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 body of the pudding, giving it bulk and a soft chewy texture.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, and whipped air gives the pudding a light texture.
Gelatine
Sets the cream mixture so the pudding holds its shape when chilled.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves easily into the whipped cream.

The step that matters

Strain the dissolved gelatin into the mixture, stirring gently. Gelatine must be fully dissolved and added while still liquid but not hot, then folded in gently. Stirring too hard knocks air out of the whipped cream, and lumps of unmelted gelatine leave a grainy, unevenly set pudding.

“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.

More rice pudding recipes

Baked 88Apple 84with Meringue 40Boiled 38French 30Lemon 29 See all 1,220 →

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