Name: Rice-cream Blanc-mange
Ingredients: 3 tablespoons Carolina rice; 4 tablespoons thick sweet cream; 4 tablespoons Madeira wine; 1 teaspoon sugar; milk (as needed)

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 ↓

Rice-cream Blanc-mange

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rice

Pick over and wash the rice well.
Put the rice into a double boiler and add enough milk to absorb.
Boil until the rice is thoroughly cooked.

Finish and serve

Pulp the rice through a fine wire sieve and set aside to cool.
Once cool, add the cream and whisk until frothy.
Stir in the wine and sugar.
Serve very cold.

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.

Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,374 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together29,399 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cream + madeira winetop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together146 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together77,875 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Carolina rice: Cooks down and is pulped to give the blanc-mange its smooth, body-giving base.
Thick sweet cream: Adds richness and a soft, creamy texture to the pulped rice.
Madeira wine: Contributes aroma and a mellow, slightly sweet flavour.
Sugar: Adds sweetness to balance the wine and cream.

The step that matters

Pulp the rice through a fine wire sieve and let it cool before adding the cream. Pushing the cooked rice through a fine sieve breaks it into a smooth purée, so no grains remain. Cooling it first keeps the cream from thinning or separating when it is whisked in.

“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.