Why it works: Raisin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
Rice Pudding Without Eggs
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Wash the rice.
Combine the rice, milk, sugar, raisins, and cinnamon or allspice in a baking dish.
Bake
Bake at 300°F (150°C) for 2 to 3 hours.
Stir the mixture 2 or 3 times during the first hour of baking.
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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Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,390 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Rice + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,137 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Its starch thickens the milk as it cooks, giving the pudding body and a soft, tender texture.
- Milk
- Serves as the cooking liquid that slowly reduces into a creamy, custard-like base around the rice.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown slightly during the long, slow bake.
- Raisins
- Plump as they absorb moisture during baking, adding sweetness and chewy pockets throughout the pudding.
The step that matters
Stir during the first hour of baking. Rice grains and starch settle toward the bottom of the dish while the milk is still thin. Stirring keeps them evenly distributed and reduces scorching on the base, so the pudding sets evenly throughout.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, rice, sugar, cinnamon):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinthe original
- Coconutfits about as well
- Figfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, rice, sugar, cinnamon. 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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