Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Rice Panada
Ingredients
Directions
Cook
Wash the rice and boil it in 1 gallon of water for 1 hour.
In a bowl, mix the flour with some cold water to make a thin paste.
Add the sugar and coarse sea salt to the rice.
Stir in the flour paste and curry powder, then boil for an additional 20 minutes.
Serve
If desired, substitute the curry powder with ¼ pound of treacle for a sweet version.
Serve warm.
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.
-
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Rice + flourtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,611 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Rice + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,744 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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 as its starch softens and swells during long boiling.
- Flour
- Its starch thickens the cooking liquid into a creamy, spoonable texture when heated.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the savoury curry and the salt.
- Curry powder
- Provides the main spiced aroma and flavour of the dish.
The step that matters
Stirring in the flour paste. Flour starch only thickens once it is heated in the liquid. Adding the thin paste while stirring keeps it dispersed, so it thickens smoothly instead of forming lumps.
“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
You might also like
Rice Fritters84 recipes
Steamed Rice48 recipes
Rice Griddle Cakes28 recipes
Rice and Cheese Casserole23 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.