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Dessert

Rice Pudding

A custard-like pudding made from milk, rice, spices, eggs, and butter, baked in a puff pastry-lined dish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Coriander and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,498 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. 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.

Make the custard base

  1. Boil the cream or milk with coriander seeds, lemon peel, cinnamon, and sugar for 10 minutes.

  2. Strain the mixture into a pot with the ground rice and boil for another 10 minutes.

  3. Let it cool, then mix in the softened butter, brandy, nutmeg, and beaten eggs.

  4. Add the apple syrup and mix well.

Bake and serve

  1. Line a dish with puff pastry, pour in the mixture, and bake at 350°F (175°C) until set, being careful not to overbake.

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. Coriander + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,498 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Cinnamon + ricetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Coriander + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Coriander + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,854 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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

What each ingredient does

Cream or new milk
Provides the liquid and richness that form the body of the pudding.
Ground rice
Thickens the liquid as it boils, giving the pudding its body and texture.
Eggs
Set when baked, binding the pudding into a firm, sliceable custard.
Fresh butter
Adds fat for a rich, smooth texture and mouthfeel.
Apple syrup
Adds sweetness and fruity flavour to the pudding.

The step that matters

Baking until just set. Eggs continue to firm as the pudding cools, and overbaking causes them to tighten and weep, leaving a grainy, curdled texture instead of a smooth custard.

Swap the coriander

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, lemon, cinnamon, sugar, rice, butter, brandy):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Corianderthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, lemon, cinnamon, sugar, rice, butter, brandy. 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.

More rice pudding recipes

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

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