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
Prepare the rice and gelatine
Soak the gelatin in ¼ cup of cold water.
Wash and pick the rice.
Place the rice in a saucepan with 1 pint of milk. Cover the saucepan.
Boil gently until the rice absorbs all the milk, about 20 to 30 minutes without stirring. Add the sugar.
Transfer the rice to a basin to cool.
Make the custard
Boil ½ pint of milk in a small saucepan.
Lightly mix the egg yolks in a bowl. Pour the boiling milk over the yolks and mix thoroughly.
Return the custard to the heat with the soaked gelatin, stirring until melted and thickened without boiling.
Combine the custard with the cooled rice and mix well.
Set and serve
Whip the cream. Fold the whipped cream into the mixture.
Decorate a border mold with cherries and angelica. Fill the mold with the rice mixture.
Set on ice to chill completely.
Turn out the mold. Fill the center with fruit puree or whipped cream, optionally colored with cochineal.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Rice + angelicatop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together54 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Carolina rice
- Swells as it absorbs milk, forming the body of the pudding.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard and add richness and a smooth set.
- Gelatine
- Sets the pudding so it holds its shape when turned out.
- Milk
- Cooks the rice and forms the base of the custard.
- Cream
- Whipped and folded in to lighten the texture and add richness.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and softens the set.
The step that matters
Return the custard to the heat with the gelatine. Egg yolks thicken and can curdle if boiled, so the custard must be stirred gently until thickened. Gelatine needs to dissolve fully to set evenly when chilled.
Swap the angelica
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, sugar, egg, cream):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Turmericfits about as well
- Angelicathe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, sugar, 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.
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