Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓
Delicious Milk Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
In a saucepan, heat the milk with the essence.
Add the rice and stir well.
Line a baking dish with honey or sugar.
Bake and finish
Pour the milk and rice mixture into the dish.
Place the dish in a baking tin half full of boiling water.
Cook slowly in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 2½ hours.
Finish cooking on a hot rack for 30 minutes.
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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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
-
Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Vanilla + honeytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,262 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Milk + honeytop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,336 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).
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Vanilla + ricetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,352 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the rice absorbs and cooks into a creamy pudding.
- Well-washed rice
- Absorbs the milk as it cooks, softening and thickening the pudding to give it body.
- Honey or sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the lining brown slightly as it bakes.
- Essence of vanilla or lemon
- Adds aroma that flavours the milk throughout the pudding.
The step that matters
Cook slowly in the water bath. Gentle, indirect heat from the boiling water in the tin keeps the milk from scorching or boiling over while the rice slowly absorbs it and softens.
“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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