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Dessert

Cold Rice Pudding

A chilled dessert made with soaked rice, milk, sugar, egg yolks, gelatin, and whipped cream, served with cherries and fruit puree.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Cold Rice Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the rice

  1. Soak the gelatin in ½ cup cold water.

  2. Wash and pick the rice, then place it in a saucepan with 1 pint of milk.

  3. Cover and simmer gently until the rice absorbs all the milk, about 20 to 30 minutes without stirring.

  4. Add the sugar and transfer the rice to a basin to cool.

Make the custard

  1. In a small saucepan, bring 1 pint of milk to a boil.

  2. Lightly mix the egg yolks in a bowl, then pour the boiling milk over them and mix well.

  3. Return the custard to the heat with the soaked gelatin, stirring until melted and thickened without boiling.

Assemble and set

  1. Combine the custard with the cooled rice and mix thoroughly.

  2. Whip the cream and fold it into the mixture.

  3. Decorate a border mold with cherries and angelica, then fill it with the rice mixture.

  4. Chill until completely cold, then turn out and fill the center with fruit puree or whipped cream colored with cochineal.

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. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Milk and sugar 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
Provides the starchy bulk that gives the pudding its body as it absorbs milk.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the custard, giving it richness and a smooth, set texture.
Gelatine
Sets the chilled pudding so it holds its shape when turned out of the mold.
Milk
Cooks with the rice to create the creamy base and forms the custard.
Cream
Whipped and folded in, adding lightness, richness and a softer mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Return the custard to the heat without boiling. Egg yolks scramble and curdle if they get too hot, and gelatine needs gentle warmth to dissolve fully. Stirring over low heat thickens the custard smoothly without turning it grainy.

“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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