Name: Another Way to Riake Whole Rice Pudding
Ingredients: ¼ pound rice; 1 ounce fresh butter; Water (enough to cover rice); 6 eggs, well beaten; A few pounded bitter almonds; 1 teaspoon pounded cinnamon; ⅓ cup rum; Sugar (to taste)

Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Another Way to Riake Whole Rice Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Wash the rice in several waters.
Put the rice in a saucepan with the butter and enough water to cover it.
Stir frequently until the mixture thickens.

Make the pudding

Add the beaten eggs, pounded almonds, cinnamon, and rum.
Sweeten to taste and boil the mixture in a cloth for one hour.
Serve with a sweet sauce.

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.

Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,514 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Rice + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,137 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Rice + almondtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,456 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cinnamon + rumtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together508 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

Cinnamon and sugar 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: Forms the bulk of the pudding and thickens as it cooks in the liquid.
Eggs: Set when heated, binding the pudding and giving it a firmer, custard-like body.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, giving the pudding a smoother, more tender texture.
Rum: Adds aroma and flavour to the pudding.

The step that matters

Stirring until the mixture thickens. Rice starch thickens as it absorbs liquid and sticks to the bottom of the pan. Stirring frequently spreads the heat evenly and prevents scorching while the rice cooks down to a creamy consistency.

“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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Another Way to Riake Whole Rice Pudding