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Dessert

Caramel Rice Pudding

A sweet pudding made from rice, milk, eggs, and caramelized sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Caramel Rice Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. Prepare the caramel by dissolving the sugar in water over low heat until golden.

  2. Line a mold with the caramel.

Make the pudding

  1. Simmer the rice in milk until tender, then cool slightly.

  2. Stir in the beaten eggs, caster sugar, and vanilla essence.

  3. Pour the mixture into the prepared mold, cover with buttered paper, and steam for nearly 1 hour.

Serve

  1. Serve hot or cold.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Rice + vanillatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,352 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
Softens in simmering milk and thickens the pudding as it cooks.
Eggs
Set when steamed, giving the pudding a firm yet tender structure.
Milk
Cooks the rice and provides the liquid that gives the pudding its creamy body.
Loaf sugar
Melts and browns into caramel that coats the mold and becomes the sauce.

The step that matters

Dissolving and browning the caramel. Sugar burns quickly once it turns golden, so low heat and close watching give an even amber color without a bitter taste. Browned sugar that is too dark becomes bitter and can crack when the hot caramel meets the mold.

“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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