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Rice Mould

Rice Mould is a molded rice pudding made with rice, sugar, milk, lemon rind, and served with jam or stewed fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 Mould

Ingredients

Directions

Make the rice pudding

  1. Simmer the rice, sugar, salt, and lemon rind in the milk for about 3 hours until the milk is absorbed.

  2. Remove the lemon rind and press the rice into a mold.

Serve

  1. Once cold, turn it out and serve with jam or stewed fruit.

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

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

  2. Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,366 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
Starch that softens slowly in the milk and sets into a firm, sliceable mould when cold.
Milk
Liquid that the rice absorbs while cooking, giving the pudding its creamy body.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the pudding and adds to its soft, tender texture.
Lemon rind
Adds a light citrus aroma to the milk as it simmers.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly until the milk is absorbed. Long, gentle simmering lets the rice swell and soften fully while the starch thickens the milk. Rushing it or using too high heat can leave the rice firm or scorch the milk on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, sugar, milk. 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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