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 ↓
German Pudding, and Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
Stew the rice in the milk until very tender.
Let it cool slightly, then mix in the beef suet, sugar, candied rind, raisins, and beaten eggs.
Boil the mixture in a buttered basin or well-floured cloth for 2 hours and 15 minutes.
Make the sauce
For the sauce, dissolve the sugar in ⅓ cup of sherry or white wine over heat.
Stir the hot mixture into the beaten yolks of the eggs.
Hold the saucepan high above the fire and stir until it resembles custard, avoiding boiling.
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 + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rice + beeftop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,265 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Rice + raisintop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together565 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Rice + orangetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,067 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Milk + beeftop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,759 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rice
- Softens into the body of the pudding, giving it bulk and a tender texture after stewing in milk.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and set when heated, and thicken the sauce into a custard.
- Beef suet
- Adds richness and fat, keeping the boiled pudding moist and tender.
- Sugar
- Provides sweetness and dissolves into the sherry or wine to flavour the sauce.
- Milk
- Cooks the rice until tender and adds moisture and softness to the pudding.
- Sultana raisins
- Add sweetness, chewy texture and fruity flavour throughout the pudding.
The step that matters
Stirring the sauce without boiling. Egg proteins thicken gently when heated slowly and stirred. If the mixture boils, the eggs can scramble and curdle instead of setting into a smooth custard.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, beef, sugar, raisin, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, beef, sugar, raisin, egg. 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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