Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Modern Cookery
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Cook the rice
Cook the rice in milk until tender.
Scrape lemon rind into the rice before removing from heat.
Mould the pudding
Butter a decorative tin mold and press the hot rice into it, smoothing the surface.
Let the rice cool in the mold.
If using a plain mold, dip it in hot water to loosen the rice.
Turn out the rice onto a dish and mark a rim around the top with a knife.
Bake and serve
Brush clarified butter over the pudding and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden brown.
Carefully scoop out the inside, leaving a crust about 1 inch thick.
Fill the cavity with warmed preserved fruit or a compote.
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 + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Milk + plumtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together406 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Lemon + plumtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together623 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rice
- Starch that softens in milk and sets into a firm, sliceable pudding structure.
- Whole milk
- Cooks into the rice, adding moisture, richness and a creamy texture.
- Fresh butter
- Adds fat for flavour and helps the crust brown in the oven.
- Powdered sugar
- Adds sweetness and dissolves easily into the rice.
- Lemon rind
- Adds aromatic citrus oils that scent the pudding.
The step that matters
Carefully scoop out the inside, leaving a crust about 1 inch thick.. Rice that is still warm or underbaked is soft and crumbles easily, so the crust can break if scooped too early or too thinly. Leaving a sturdy wall keeps the shell intact to hold the filling.
Swap the plum
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, butter, sugar, lemon):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits better
- Plumthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, butter, sugar, lemon. 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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