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Rice Puddings Baked or Boiled

A sweet rice pudding made with milk, butter, eggs, and spices, baked or boiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Rice Puddings Baked or Boiled

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the rice

  1. Wash and clean the rice in cold water.

  2. In a quart stew‑pan, boil the rice in cold water for 5 minutes, then drain.

Make the pudding

  1. Add 1 quart of milk, lemon peel, and cinnamon to the rice and boil gently until tender, about 1 hour and 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in the butter.

  3. Beat the eggs with nutmeg and sugar, then mix into the pudding until smooth.

Bake

  1. Line a pie dish with puff paste, pour in the pudding, and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 45 minutes.

  2. For a custard‑like pudding, add 1 more egg and ½ pint more milk, and boil for 1 hour.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Rice + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Swells as it simmers in milk, giving the pudding its body and tender texture.
Milk
Cooks with the rice to form the creamy base of the pudding.
Eggs
Set when heated, giving the pudding structure and a custard-like richness.
Butter
Adds fat, which contributes richness and a smoother mouthfeel.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps browning on the baked surface.

The step that matters

Simmering the rice in milk until tender. Rice must cook slowly with frequent stirring so its starch releases gradually and the milk thickens evenly. Too much heat can scorch the milk on the pan base or leave the grains firm.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, cinnamon, butter, egg, nutmeg, sugar. 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

Baked 88Apple 84with Meringue 40Boiled 38French 30Lemon 29 See all 1,220 →

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