Why it works: Rice and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,645 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Rice Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Mix the boiled rice with currants, sugar, butter, and the beaten egg.
Place the mixture in a floured cloth or mold.
Boil for nearly an hour.
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.
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Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,645 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Currant + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,856 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Boiled dry rice
- Forms the bulk and body of the pudding.
- Beaten egg
- Binds the mixture and helps it set as it cooks.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a softer texture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness.
- Currants
- Add sweetness, chewy texture and fruity flavor.
The step that matters
Place the mixture in a floured cloth or mold. A floured cloth helps form a thin skin on the outside and keeps the pudding from sticking. The cloth or mold must be well sealed and filled with room to spare so the pudding holds its shape and does not leak or burst while boiling.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, sugar, butter, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Lemonfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, sugar, butter, 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.
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