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, Curried
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the rice
Wash and drain the rice.
Put the rice into a saucepan with milk, salt, and lemon rind.
Cook until the rice is tender, adding more milk as needed.
Remove the lemon rind.
Set and shape
Add sugar and egg yolks, and stir over heat until cooked.
Spread the mixture on a plate.
Let it cool.
Form into pear shapes.
Coat with egg and breadcrumbs.
Fry in hot fat until lightly browned.
Drain well.
Finish and serve
Sprinkle with sugar.
Serve with fruit syrup or sweet sauce.
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.
-
Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
-
Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon and sugar 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
- Its starch swells and softens in milk, giving the pudding body and a thick texture.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that cooks the rice and gives the pudding its creamy richness.
- Egg
- Sets when heated to bind the mixture, and helps breadcrumbs adhere to the shapes.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown lightly when fried.
- Breadcrumbs
- Form a crisp, golden coating that browns when fried in hot fat.
The step that matters
Stir over heat until cooked. Egg proteins set when heated, so stirring constantly keeps the mixture smooth and prevents it from curdling or forming lumps in the rice.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, sugar, egg. 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.
More rice pudding recipes
You might also like
Lemon Cake228 recipes
Lemon Ice147 recipes
Rice Cake120 recipes
Lemon Sherbet103 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.