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Dessert

Rice Pudding, Baked

A baked pudding made with rice, milk, eggs, butter, marrow, currants, sugar, brandy, lemon rind, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Rice Pudding, Baked

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the rice and milk

  1. Put the lemon rind and milk in a saucepan and let it infuse until flavored.

  2. Boil the rice in water with a small amount of salt until tender, then drain thoroughly.

Make the pudding mixture

  1. Beat the eggs and stir in the strained milk, butter, marrow, currants, and sugar.

  2. Add the rice and mix well.

Bake

  1. Line the edges of a baking dish with puff pastry, pour in the pudding mixture, and bake at 300°F (150°C) for about 1 hour.

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. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  4. Rice + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Rice + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,265 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set as it bakes.
Rice
Provides the body of the pudding, absorbing the milk and custard as it softens.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the eggs set into a creamy custard.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving a tender, smooth texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the pudding brown lightly on top.
Currants
Add pockets of fruitiness and sweetness throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Drain the rice thoroughly after boiling. Excess water left on the rice dilutes the egg and milk mixture, so the pudding may bake up loose and watery instead of set and creamy.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, egg, milk, butter, beef, brandy, nutmeg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, egg, milk, butter, beef, brandy, nutmeg. 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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