Name: Iced Rice Pudding, a LA Cintra
Ingredients: 8 ounces Carolina rice; 1 quart milk; 1 pint cream; 2 sticks vanilla; 12 ounces sugar; a pinch of salt; 6 egg yolks

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 ↓

Iced Rice Pudding, a LA Cintra

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rice

Wash and parboil the rice.

Make the pudding

In a saucepan, combine rice, milk, cream, vanilla, sugar, and salt.
Simmer gently until the rice is almost dissolved, stirring occasionally.
While still hot, add the egg yolks and mix well for several minutes.

Freeze

Freeze the mixture in a mold as previously described.
Cover the mold and immerse it in ice until set.

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.

Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,187 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,374 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Rice + vanillatop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,352 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Vanilla and sugar 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

Carolina rice: Provides the starch and body that give the pudding its thick, creamy texture.
Milk: Supplies liquid that the rice absorbs and softens in while simmering.
Cream: Adds fat that makes the frozen pudding rich and smooth rather than icy.
Sugar: Sweetens the pudding and lowers its freezing point, keeping it softer when frozen.
Egg yolks: Thicken the custard and add richness and emulsifying fat to the mixture.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks while hot. Egg yolks thicken when heated, but if the mixture is too hot they can scramble. Stirring them in gently while the base is hot but not boiling gives a smooth, thickened custard.

“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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Iced Rice Pudding, a LA Cintra