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Dessert

Rice a LA Vathek, or Rice Pudding a LA Vathek

A sweet rice pudding made with almonds, milk, rice, butter, and sugar, served with apricot jam.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 852 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Rice a LA Vathek, or Rice Pudding a LA Vathek

Ingredients

Directions

Make the almond milk

  1. Blanch and pound the almonds to a smooth paste, adding a few drops of water to prevent oiling.

  2. Stir in the boiling milk gradually, then strain through a thin cloth and set aside to cool.

  3. Wash and soak the rice for 10 minutes, then drain.

Cook the rice

  1. Pour the almond milk over the rice, bring to a boil, and simmer gently, stirring often to prevent lumps.

  2. Add the butter and sugar when the rice is tender and dry.

Mold and serve

  1. Mold the rice, pressing it evenly, leaving a 1-inch thick edge.

  2. Brush the top with butter before baking to prevent dryness.

  3. Serve with apricot jam poured into the center.

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. Almond + apricottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Almond + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Fine jordan almonds
Provide the main flavour and body of the almond milk once pounded to a paste.
Carolina rice
Absorbs the almond milk as it simmers, forming the thick, tender body of the pudding.
Fresh butter
Adds richness and moisture, and keeps the pudding from drying out on top.
Pounded sugar
Adds sweetness and helps give the pudding its soft, tender texture.
Boiling milk
Extracts the almond flavour and forms the liquid the rice cooks in.

The step that matters

Simmer the rice gently and stir often. Rice starch thickens and can clump or scorch on the bottom of the pan if left still or heated too hard. Gentle heat with frequent stirring lets the grains absorb the liquid evenly and become tender without lumps.

Swap the apricot

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, milk, rice, butter, sugar. 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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