Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Baked Ground-Rice Pudding
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.
Make the rice base
Boil the rice in the milk until tender.
Add the butter, sugar, lemon peel, and egg yolks to the rice mixture.
Let it cool, then stir in the lemon juice and beaten egg whites gently.
Bake
Pour the mixture into a buttered baking dish.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 1 hour.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,645 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rice
- Cooked in milk until tender, it forms the body of the pudding.
- Milk
- Cooks the rice and adds moisture and softness to the pudding.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a rich, tender texture.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the custard and help it set softly as it bakes.
- Egg whites
- Folded in gently to lighten the mixture and help it rise.
- Moist sugar
- Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the top brown during baking.
The step that matters
Stir in the egg whites gently. Egg whites hold air that gives lift. Stirring them in hard knocks out that air, so the pudding bakes up denser and flatter. Letting the base cool first also keeps the whites from cooking or deflating early.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, butter, sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, butter, sugar, egg. 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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