Skip to main content
Dessert

Rice Imperial

A chilled dessert of rice in a jelly, cherry, and angelica mixture, topped with apricot puree.

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

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Rice Imperial

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Set a mold with the jelly, cherries, and angelica.

Make the rice

  1. Cook the rice in the milk until tender.

  2. Allow the cooked rice to cool.

  3. Add the cream, melted gelatine (dissolved in a little water), sugar, and vanilla to the cooled rice.

  4. Pour the mixture into the mold.

Set and serve

  1. Set the mold on ice.

  2. Carefully turn the rice out of the mold.

  3. Pour a puree of apricots around the rice.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Angelica + vanillatop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together170 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Forms the body of the dessert, swelling and softening as it cooks in the milk.
Gelatine
Sets the creamy rice mixture so it holds its shape when turned out of the mold.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, soft texture to the set dessert.
Milk
Cooks the rice into a tender base and adds creaminess to the mixture.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the dessert and balances the richness of the cream.

The step that matters

Set the mold on ice. The gelatine must chill and firm the rice mixture fully; if it sets too slowly or is poured while still warm, the dessert may not hold its shape when turned out.

Swap the angelica

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Peppermintfits about as well
  4. Angelicathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, cream, sugar, vanilla. 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.

You might also like

Rice CakeRice Cake120 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesRice CreamRice Cream43 recipesRice JellyRice Jelly42 recipes