Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
A French Rice Pudding, or Gateau De Riz
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Cook the rice
In a pot, gently swell the rice in the milk (or milk and cream) until tender.
Add butter, sugar, salt, and lemon rind to the rice.
Simmer until the rice is fully swollen.
Remove the rice mixture from heat and let it cool slightly.
Enrich and prepare the pan
Stir in the beaten egg yolks gradually.
Coat a small copper stewpan with clarified butter, then drain off the excess.
Sprinkle stale bread crumbs evenly over the buttered pan, shaking off any excess.
Combine and bake
Whisk the egg whites until stiff.
Fold the stiff egg whites into the rice mixture.
Pour the mixture into the prepared stewpan without disturbing the bread crumbs.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) without covering the stewpan.
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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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Carolina rice
- Swells as it cooks, thickening the milk and giving the pudding its body.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that the rice absorbs, creating a creamy, moist base.
- Eggs
- Yolks enrich and bind the custard, while whites set and lighten the baked pudding.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender texture, and coats the pan to prevent sticking.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and adds to its soft, tender texture.
The step that matters
Folding in the stiff egg whites. The whites trap air that lifts the pudding in the oven. Stirring them in vigorously deflates the foam, leaving a denser, flatter result, so fold gently until just combined.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, rice, butter, sugar, bread, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, rice, butter, sugar, bread, egg. 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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