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 George Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the rice in the milk until tender.
Let it cool.
Add the egg yolks, apple jam, and white wine, then mix well until combined.
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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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Apple + white winetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together372 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Milk + appletop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Rice + appletop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,311 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Milk + white winetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together929 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).
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 milk and gives the pudding its body.
- Milk
- Cooks the rice and forms the creamy liquid base of the pudding.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and fat that give the pudding a smooth, rich texture.
- Apple jam
- Adds sweetness and fruit flavor to the pudding.
- White wine
- Adds acidity and aroma that balance the sweetness of the jam.
The step that matters
Let it cool before adding the egg yolks. Egg yolks can scramble or curdle when added to a very hot mixture. Letting the cooked rice and milk cool first lets the yolks blend in smoothly and keeps the pudding silky.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, egg, white wine):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Lemonfits about as well
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, egg, white wine. 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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