Why it works: Rice and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,374 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Eice Caudle
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak the rice in water for 1 hour.
Strain the rice and add it to 1½ pints of milk.
Cook and serve
Simmer until the mixture can be pulped through a sieve.
Add sugar to taste; if too thick, add more milk.
Serve with toast.
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 + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rice + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,744 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Carolina rice
- Starch that thickens the milk into a creamy pudding as it simmers and breaks down.
- Milk
- Liquid that cooks the rice and forms the body of the pudding.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to the pudding.
The step that matters
Simmer until the mixture can be pulped through a sieve. Rice must be cooked long enough for its starch to soften and break down. Stop too early and the grains stay firm, so the pudding will not pass through a sieve smoothly.
“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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