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Dessert

Baked Rice Pudding

A baked dessert made from rice, milk, sugar, butter, eggs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg 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 ↓

Baked 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 the rice

  1. Pick out discolored grains and wash the rice in cold water.

  2. In a clean saucepan, combine the rice, milk, grated lemon, bay leaf, cinnamon, loaf sugar, and 1 ounce of butter.

  3. Simmer gently over low heat for about 30 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes to prevent burning.

  4. Remove from heat and take out the spice bag.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a baking dish and beat in the remaining 1 ounce of butter.

  2. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with a pinch of salt and ½ pint of milk, then strain into the rice mixture.

  3. Mix well and grate a little nutmeg on top.

  4. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven until set, ensuring it does not boil.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 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. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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 its starch thickens during simmering.
Eggs
Set during baking to give the pudding a custard-like, sliceable structure.
Milk
Provides the liquid that cooks the rice and forms the creamy base.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and contributes to browning on the surface.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, silkier texture.

The step that matters

Bake until just set, without boiling. Egg proteins set as they warm, but boiling causes them to curdle and turn grainy, and over-baking dries the custard.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, cinnamon, sugar, butter, egg, nutmeg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits about as well
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, cinnamon, sugar, butter, egg, nutmeg. 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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