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Dessert

Rice Pudding

A baked rice pudding with milk, cinnamon, lemon peel, butter, eggs, sugar, nutmeg, brandy, and optional saffron and currants.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

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. Wash the rice in several waters.

  2. Boil the rice in 1 pint of milk.

Make the custard

  1. In another saucepan, boil ½ pint of milk with cinnamon and lemon peel for 15 minutes, then strain it.

  2. Add the strained milk to the rice and boil until nearly dry.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in ¼ pound of butter until melted.

  4. In a separate bowl, beat 6 eggs (discard 2 whites) and mix in sugar, nutmeg, and brandy.

  5. Combine the egg mixture with the rice and pour into a buttered dish.

  6. For color, add saffron with the cinnamon and optional currants.

Bake and serve

  1. Add puff pastry around the rim and bake at 300°F (150°C) for about 30 minutes.

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. Cinnamon + lemontop 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 it simmers and absorbs the milk.
Milk
Provides the liquid that cooks the rice and sets into a creamy base.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set into a soft, sliceable custard when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the pudding.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the milk and eggs.

The step that matters

Boil the rice until nearly dry. Rice keeps absorbing liquid as it cooks. Stopping at nearly dry leaves a creamy texture, while cooking it fully dry can leave the pudding stiff before it goes into the oven with the egg mixture.

Swap the lemon

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

More rice pudding recipes

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

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