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Rice Pudding Meringue

A baked rice pudding topped with a crisp meringue layer.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Rice Pudding Meringue

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the rice base

  1. Gently swell the rice in the milk or cream until tender.

  2. Let it cool slightly, then stir in the butter, powdered sugar, salt, lemon rind, and egg yolks.

  3. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered dish.

Top and bake

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then mix in the sifted sugar.

  2. Spread the meringue evenly over the pudding.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 minutes until the meringue is a clear brown and crisp.

  4. Serve immediately after removing from the oven.

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

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

  2. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

  3. Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,366 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  5. Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Carolina rice
Swells in the milk to give the pudding its soft, thick body.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard and help bind the pudding as it sets.
Egg whites
Whipped into a stiff foam that forms the crisp, browned meringue topping.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the pudding.
Milk or thin cream
Provides the liquid that the rice absorbs and cooks in, setting the pudding's moisture.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the base and dissolves easily into the warm rice mixture.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites until stiff. Whites must form a firm foam to hold their shape over the pudding. Underbeaten whites weep and collapse, while the sugar stabilises the foam so the meringue bakes crisp and browned.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

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