Why it works: Rice and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,137 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Rice Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Pick and wash the rice.
Cook
Add the rice and cinnamon to the boiling water.
Boil gently for about 30 minutes, or until the water becomes thick and starchy.
Strain the mixture and sweeten to taste.
Mould and serve
Pour into small moulds rinsed with water.
Turn out when firm.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,137 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Rice + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,744 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Rice
- Its starch thickens the cooking water and gives the pudding body so it holds its shape when set.
- Cinnamon
- Adds warm aroma as it flavours the cooking liquid.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness, stirred in after straining to suit taste.
The step that matters
Boil gently for about 30 minutes. Rice starch swells and leaches into the water as it cooks, thickening the liquid. Boiling too hard can scorch the bottom and break the grains apart, while stopping early leaves the pudding too loose to set when turned out.
“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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