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 ↓
A Nice and Cheap Dessert
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
Cook the rice thoroughly in water until it becomes jelly-like.
Add milk and salt, then stir in currant jelly or bright juice.
Heat over the fire for a few minutes.
Pour into a mold and let cool.
Serve
Serve with sweetened cream or dry white sugar.
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.
-
Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Milk + curranttop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,475 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
-
Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Rice + creamtop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,399 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
-
Rice + curranttop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together497 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rice
- Cooked until jelly-like, it forms the body and thick texture of the pudding.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and richness, softening the rice and giving a creamy texture.
- Currant jelly or bright juice
- Adds tart fruit flavour and colour to the pudding.
The step that matters
Cook the rice thoroughly in water. Rice must be cooked until fully soft so its starch swells and gelatinises into a jelly-like body. Undercooked grains stay firm and grainy, and the pudding will not set smoothly when it cools.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, cream):
- Coconutfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Strawberryfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, cream. 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.
More rice pudding recipes
You might also like
Rice Cake120 recipes
Red Currant Jelly65 recipes
Rice Cream43 recipes
Rice Jelly42 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.