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Dessert

Baked Rice Pudding

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Baked Rice Pudding

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

  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 it thoroughly.

Make the pudding

  1. Beat the eggs.

  2. Stir the beaten eggs into the strained milk along with the butter, brandy, currants, sugar, and rice.

Bake

  1. Line the edges of a baking dish with puff pastry.

  2. Pour the pudding mixture into the dish.

  3. Bake at 300°F (150°C) for about 30 minutes.

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. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Forms the body of the pudding and absorbs the milk and eggs as it sets.
Eggs
Bind the pudding and help it set into a custard-like texture when baked.
Milk
Provides the liquid base that carries the flavour and sets with the eggs.
Butter
Adds richness and a soft, moist texture to the pudding.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the top brown during baking.
Currants
Add chewy pockets of fruit sweetness throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Bake at 300°F (150°C) for about 30 minutes. Baking at a moderate temperature lets the eggs and milk set gently into a smooth custard. Too high a heat can curdle the eggs and make the texture grainy or watery.

Swap the currant

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

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

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