Why it works: Rice and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,137 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Rice Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the rice
Rinse the rice and place it in a saucepan with enough cold water to cover it.
Bring the water to a boil.
Pour in the milk.
Stir frequently to prevent burning.
Boil until the rice is soft.
Finish and bake or steam
Transfer the rice to a bowl and stir in the butter or minced suet.
Once cool, add the beaten eggs, a little ground cinnamon or grated nutmeg, and sugar.
Mix well and either steam or bake as you would for bread pudding.
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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Rice + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,137 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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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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Rice + milktop 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
- Softens as it cooks and forms the body of the pudding.
- Milk
- Cooks with the rice to create a creamy, moist base.
- Butter or suet
- Adds fat for richness and a smoother, softer texture.
- Eggs
- Bind the pudding and help it set as it cooks.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the flavour of the milk.
The step that matters
Stir frequently while the rice boils in the milk. Milk sugars and starches scorch easily on the base of a pan, so constant stirring prevents burning and keeps the texture even as the rice softens and thickens.
“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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