Why it works: Cinnamon and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the pudding
In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.
Add the beaten eggs, lemon zest, cinnamon, bread crumbs, raisins or currants, and cream or melted butter.
Mix in the cooked rice until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.
Bake
Bake for about 1 hour, or until set and golden.
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.
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Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,390 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Rice + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,137 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and set it into a custard-like texture as they cook.
- Butter
- Adds richness and tenderness, and helps the creamed base hold air and flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps brown the surface as it bakes.
- Cooked rice
- Forms the body of the pudding, giving it bulk and a soft, tender bite.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb liquid and help give the pudding a firmer, more sliceable structure.
- Cream or melted butter
- Adds moisture and richness, keeping the pudding tender rather than dry.
The step that matters
Bake until just set. Eggs set as they heat; if the pudding is baked too long or too hot, the eggs over-coagulate and the texture turns dry, grainy or curdled.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, butter, sugar, egg, cinnamon, bread, raisin):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, butter, sugar, egg, cinnamon, bread, raisin. 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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