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 ↓
A Good Ground Rice Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a very gentle oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the custard base
Mix the rice flour with ½ pint of milk until smooth.
Pour this mixture into 1 pint of boiling milk, stirring constantly over gentle heat for 10 to 12 minutes.
Add the butter, sugar, and salt, stirring until combined.
Remove from heat and quickly mix in the egg yolks, egg whites, lemon rind, and brandy.
Bake and serve
Prepare a buttered dish with a border of pastry, pour in the pudding, and drizzle with clarified butter.
Moisten the pastry edges with cold water and sprinkle sugar on top.
Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 45 minutes.
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 + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,127 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rice flour
- Thickens the milk into a smooth, spoonable pudding base as it cooks.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that sets into a creamy, tender pudding.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the pudding.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps brown the top during baking.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the custard and help it set into a tender, creamy texture.
- Egg whites
- Add lightness and help give the baked pudding structure.
The step that matters
Remove from heat and quickly mix in the egg yolks, egg whites, lemon rind, and brandy.. Eggs can scramble if they meet very hot liquid. Taking the base off the heat before adding them lets the yolks blend in smoothly and set gently in the oven.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, butter, sugar, egg, brandy):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, butter, sugar, egg, brandy. 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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