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Dessert

Rice Pudding

Rice pudding made with cream, rice, eggs, spices, and butter, baked in puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Coriander and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,498 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Rice Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the base

  1. Combine cream, coriander seeds, lemon peel, cinnamon, and sugar in a pot.

  2. Boil the mixture for 10 minutes.

  3. Strain the mixture into a pot with ground rice.

  4. Boil for another 10 minutes.

Finish and bake

  1. Once cooled, mix in oiled butter, brandy, nutmeg, and beaten eggs.

  2. Pour the mixture into a dish lined with puff pastry.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until set, being careful not to overbake.

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. Coriander + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,498 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Cinnamon + ricetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Coriander + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Coriander + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,854 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cream or whole milk
Provides the liquid base and richness for the pudding.
Ground rice
Thickens the mixture as it cooks, giving the pudding body.
Eggs
Set during baking to give the pudding its custard-like structure.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, richer texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the dairy and spices.
Syrup of pippins
Adds sweetness and a mild fruity flavour.

The step that matters

Baking until just set. Egg proteins firm as they heat, and overbaking pushes them too far, causing the custard to turn grainy, curdle, or weep liquid.

Swap the coriander

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, lemon, cinnamon, sugar, rice, butter, brandy):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Corianderthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, lemon, cinnamon, sugar, rice, butter, brandy. 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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