Skip to main content
Dessert

Creams, Custards, &C

A rice custard dessert made with egg whites, yolks, and topped with red currant jelly or raspberry jam.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Rice and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,399 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Creams, Custards, &C

Ingredients

Directions

Make the rice base

  1. Cook the rice until thick, then remove from heat.

  2. Stir in the well-beaten egg whites and return to heat for 2-3 minutes.

  3. Pour the mixture into tea cups dipped in cold water and let cool.

  4. Once cool, turn out the rice and pour custard made with the egg yolks around it.

Finish and serve

  1. Top with red-currant jelly or raspberry jam.

  2. Serve warm or cold, with raspberry cream or custard 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.

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 + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Egg + curranttop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Rice + curranttop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together497 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Rice + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,350 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Rice
Forms the thick base that holds the shape when turned out of the cup.
Egg whites
Cook and set into the rice, giving it structure and a light, tender texture.
Egg yolks
Make the custard that surrounds the rice, adding richness and a smooth set.
Red-currant jelly or raspberry jam
Adds sweetness and fruity acidity on top of the dish.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg whites and heating briefly. Egg whites set when heated, so the mixture must be cooked gently for the stated 2-3 minutes to firm up without turning rubbery or curdling.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Avocadofits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, egg, cream. 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.

You might also like

Rice CakeRice Cake120 recipesRed Currant JellyRed Currant Jelly65 recipesRice CreamRice Cream43 recipesRice JellyRice Jelly42 recipes