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Dessert

Arroz Doce

A sweet rice pudding made with Carolina rice, milk, sugar, almonds, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Arroz Doce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rice

  1. Rinse the rice in a dry cloth and pick it carefully.

Cook

  1. Combine the rice and milk in a pot and simmer gently for 30 minutes.

  2. Add the sugar and stir until the mixture is dry and tender.

  3. When nearly done, stir in the pounded almonds.

Serve

  1. Pour into soup plates and smooth the surface.

  2. Sift ground cinnamon over the top before serving cold.

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.

  1. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Rice + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Rice + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Carolina rice
Starch that softens as it simmers, giving the dessert its body and tender texture.
Milk
Liquid that cooks the rice and, with its proteins and sugars, gives a creamy, rich result.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the mixture thicken as moisture is driven off.
Blanched almonds
Add nutty flavour and a fine, rich texture when stirred in near the end.

The step that matters

Stir in the sugar until the mixture is dry and tender. Sugar added to rice that is still hot and wet can make the grains firm if stirred too little or too briefly. Continued gentle stirring lets the starch absorb liquid and soften evenly, so the pudding sets creamy rather than soupy or grainy.

“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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