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Dessert

Plain Rice Pudding

A baked rice pudding made with milk, butter, spices, and optional raisins or eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,377 recipes. Both carry alpha-terpineol, which smells lilac, floral. The science ↓

Plain 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. Wash the rice, which should have been well soaked.

  2. Place the rice in a pie dish with the milk, butter or suet, nutmeg, and sugar or mixed spice.

  3. Put the butter or suet on top.

Bake

  1. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 2 hours or longer.

  2. If desired, add sultanas or raisins for extra flavor.

  3. For a richer pudding, add 1 or 2 eggs.

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. Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  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. Rice + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together565 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 as it absorbs milk and softens during slow baking.
Skimmed milk
Provides the liquid that cooks the rice and sets into a creamy, tender custard-like texture.
Butter or suet
Adds fat that enriches the flavor and gives the pudding a rich mouthfeel.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and contributes to gentle browning on the surface during baking.
Eggs
Add protein that helps the pudding set and makes it richer and firmer.

The step that matters

Bake in a slow oven for 2 hours or longer. Low, steady heat lets the rice slowly absorb the milk and soften without scorching or curdling the milk. Cooking too hot can cause the milk to scorch on the bottom and the surface to brown too quickly.

Swap the raisin

The recipe marks raisin as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, butter, nutmeg, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, butter, nutmeg, 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

Baked 88Apple 84with Meringue 40Boiled 38French 30Lemon 29 See all 1,220 →

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