Why it works: Rice and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,374 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Rice Meringue
Ingredients
Directions
Make the rice custard
Boil the milk and stir in the rice.
Beat the egg yolks with ⅓ cup of sugar, then add to the milk and rice mixture.
Cook until thick like soft custard, then remove from heat.
Grate the lemon rind into the mixture and pour into a buttered dish.
Top and brown
Beat the egg whites with the remaining sugar and add the lemon juice.
Pour the egg white mixture over the pudding and brown in the oven.
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.
-
Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
-
Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Boiled rice
- Forms the body of the pudding, giving it a soft, thick texture.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that cooks the rice and sets into a creamy custard.
- Eggs
- Yolks thicken the custard, while whites whip into the meringue topping that browns.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps the meringue whip and turn golden.
- Lemon
- Rind adds aroma and juice adds acidity to brighten the sweet custard.
The step that matters
Cook until thick like soft custard. Egg yolks thicken when heated gently, but overheating can scramble them and make the custard grainy. Remove from heat once it coats a spoon, since it keeps thickening as it cools.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, egg, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, egg, sugar. 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.
More rice meringue recipes
You might also like
Lemon Rice Pudding19 recipes
Lemon Cake228 recipes
Lemon Ice147 recipes
Rice Cake120 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.