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Dessert

Biscuit Puddings

A baked rice biscuit pudding made with ground rice, baking powder, egg, sugar, vanilla, and butter.

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

Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Biscuit Puddings

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, break the egg and add the sugar; beat until thick and frothy.

  2. Gently stir in the ground rice, baking powder, and vanilla.

Bake and serve

  1. Butter small cups or dariole moulds and fill them three-fourths full with the mixture.

  2. Bake for about 15 minutes.

  3. Turn out the puddings and serve with jam sauce, if desired.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Rice + vanillatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,352 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Vanilla + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Egg
Beaten with sugar, it traps air and gives the puddings structure as they set.
Ground rice
Provides the body of the pudding, setting into a soft, tender crumb when baked.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven, helping the puddings rise and become light.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps the egg foam hold when beaten until thick.

The step that matters

Beating the egg and sugar until thick and frothy. Whisking incorporates air into the egg, which is the main source of lift in this batter. Under-beating leaves the puddings dense, while over-stirring after adding the rice and baking powder knocks out air and reduces rise.

Swap the vanilla

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, egg, sugar, butter):

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Coconutfits about as well
  3. Lemonfits less well
  4. Raisinfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, egg, sugar, butter. 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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