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Dessert

Plain Rice Pudding

A baked rice pudding made with butter, sugar, spices, eggs, and sweet milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Plain 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.

Prepare the rice

  1. Pick over the rice, then wash the rice.

  2. Boil the rice until soft, then drain the rice.

  3. While the rice is warm, add the cold butter.

Make the pudding

  1. When the mixture is cool, mix in the sugar, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

  2. Beat the eggs very lightly, separating the whites and yolks.

  3. Add the beaten eggs to the rice mixture.

  4. Gradually stir in the sweet milk.

  5. Butter a pudding dish.

  6. Pour the mixture into the dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 1 hour at 350°F (175°C).

  2. Serve warm with sweet wine sauce.

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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Rice + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  5. Rice + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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 softens and holds the custard together.
Eggs
Set during baking to give the pudding structure and a custard-like texture.
Sweet milk
Provides liquid and richness, softening the rice and setting into a creamy custard.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the top brown lightly during baking.
Cold butter
Adds fat and richness, contributing a smooth, rich mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Add the eggs to a cool mixture. Eggs thicken when heated, so adding them to a very hot mixture can scramble them. Letting the rice mixture cool first and beating the eggs lightly keeps the custard smooth.

“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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