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 ↓
Orange Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the custard base
Mix the ground rice with a little cold milk.
Heat the remaining milk in a double boiler until boiling, then stir in the mixed rice and cook for 5 minutes.
Add the butter to the cooked mixture and let it cool.
Beat together the granulated sugar, yolks of 8 eggs, and whites of 4 eggs.
Grate the orange rind and squeeze the juice into the egg mixture, then stir into the cooled mixture.
Bake and top with meringue
Line a 3-quart pudding dish with pasta and pour the mixture in.
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 40 minutes.
Beat the remaining 4 egg whites to stiff peaks, gradually adding the powdered sugar.
Cover the pudding with the meringue and return to the oven for 10 minutes with the door open.
Let it cool completely; serve ice cold.
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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Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rice + pastatop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together80 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Orange + ricetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,067 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Milk + orangetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,696 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Yolks set the custard and whites build the airy meringue topping.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard, giving it body and moisture.
- Ground rice
- Thickens the milk as it cooks, giving the filling a smooth, soft body.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a tender, silky texture to the custard.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the custard and helps stabilise the egg mixture.
- Orange juice and rind
- Add bright acidity and citrus aroma that cut through the richness.
The step that matters
Beating the meringue to stiff peaks. Egg whites need to be beaten until they hold firm peaks before the sugar is added gradually. Under-beaten whites weep and collapse, while sugar added too fast slows foaming and leaves a weaker topping.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, butter, sugar, rice, pasta):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Lemonfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, butter, sugar, rice, pasta. 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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