Why it works: Rice and milk 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 ↓
Ground Rice Mould
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
Mix the ground rice with a little cold milk.
Boil the remaining milk with the sugar.
Stir in the ground rice and raisins, and boil for five minutes, stirring constantly.
Set and turn out
Pour into a wetted mold and turn out when set.
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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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
-
Rice + raisintop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together565 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Raisin + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,742 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Ground rice
- Its starch thickens as it cooks, giving the pudding body and a soft set.
- Milk
- Forms the cooking liquid that gives the pudding its creamy texture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to the pudding.
- Raisins
- Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.
- Lemon extract
- Adds a bright citrus aroma.
The step that matters
Stirring the rice while it boils. Ground rice starch settles and can scorch on the base of the pan. Stirring constantly keeps the mixture smooth and lets the starch thicken evenly.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, sugar, raisin, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, sugar, raisin, milk. 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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