Name: Ground Rice Mould
Ingredients: 1 pint milk; 2 tablespoons sugar; 2 oz medium ground rice; Salt; Brandy (optional); Nutmeg (for garnish); Stewed fruit (for serving)

Why it works: Milk and rice 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 ↓

Ground Rice Mould

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the ground rice with a little cold milk.
In a pan, heat the rest of the milk with sugar until it boils.
Pour the boiling milk over the rice and add salt.
Return to the pan and stir until it boils; let it boil for 10 minutes.
Turn the mixture into a mould rinsed with cold water and allow to cool completely.
Once set, turn out the mould and serve with stewed fruit.
If using, warm the milk to blood heat, dissolve the sugar in it, add brandy, stir in rennet, and set aside to cool.
Grate nutmeg on top before serving.

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.

Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,374 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Rice + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,779 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,685 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Brandy + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,311 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,738 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).