Why it works: Rice and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,645 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Plain Boiled Rice Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the rice thoroughly.
Tie the rice in a pudding cloth, leaving room for it to swell.
Place the cloth in a saucepan of cold water.
Cook and serve
Boil gently for 2 hours, tightening the cloth if necessary.
Serve with melted butter, cold butter and sugar, stewed fruit, jam, or marmalade.
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 + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,645 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Rice + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,744 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
- Rice
- Swells as it cooks, forming the body and bulk of the pudding.
- Melted butter
- Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel when served over the rice.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to balance the plain starchy rice.
The step that matters
Leave room in the pudding cloth. Rice swells considerably as it absorbs water and cooks. If the cloth is tied too tightly, the grains are squeezed and the pudding can burst or cook unevenly. Leaving space lets the rice expand, and tightening the cloth during boiling keeps it secure.
“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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