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 Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the rice carefully.
Cook the rice
Boil the rice in the milk for 1.5 hours, stirring frequently.
Sweeten with sugar.
Finish and serve
Beat the egg yolks for 10 minutes while the rice cools.
Stir in the egg yolks and mix well.
Heat gently for 1 minute after boiling.
Serve hot or cold as preferred.
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.
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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rice + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,744 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
- Rice
- Its starch thickens the milk as it cooks, giving the pudding its body.
- Milk
- Cooks the rice slowly and forms the creamy base of the pudding.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the pudding and help it set into a smooth, thick custard.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to the pudding.
The step that matters
Stirring in the egg yolks and heating gently. Egg yolks set when heated, so if they go into a very hot mixture without being mixed well, or are heated too hard, they can curdle and turn grainy instead of smooth and creamy.
“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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