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Dessert

Ground Rice Pudding

A baked pudding made with ground rice, almonds, eggs, milk, butter, spices, and optional currants and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Ground Rice Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a warm oven”. The 300°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Pound the bitter and sweet almonds in a mortar until fine.

  2. Whisk the eggs until frothy.

  3. Grate the lemon zest and add nutmeg and cinnamon to taste.

Make the pudding

  1. In a saucepan, combine the milk and ground rice over low heat, stirring until thickened.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in the butter, almonds, eggs, spices, and enough sugar to sweeten.

  3. If desired, add washed currants.

  4. For extra flavor, add brandy with the spices before baking.

Bake

  1. Line a dish with puff pastry, pour in the pudding mixture, and bake in a warm oven (300°F / 150°C) until set.

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. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Cinnamon + ricetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the pudding as they cook, and add richness and structure to the custard.
Ground rice
Thickens the milk into a body that holds the pudding together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the rice thickens and the eggs set.
Butter
Adds fat for a rich, smooth texture and mouthfeel.
Almonds
Contribute nutty flavor and body through their finely ground texture.

The step that matters

Thicken the milk and rice gently. Stirring over low heat keeps the ground rice from scorching or clumping while its starch swells and thickens the milk. Eggs added to a very hot mixture can curdle, so the base should be cooled slightly before the eggs go in.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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