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Dessert

Baked Rice Custard

A baked custard made from cooked rice, milk, eggs, sugar, butter, and vanilla, topped with a browned meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Baked Rice Custard

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the custard

  1. Combine all ingredients except the egg whites in a bowl.

  2. Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish placed in a water bath.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.

Top and brown

  1. Make a meringue with the egg whites and 2 tablespoons of sugar.

  2. Spread the meringue on top of the pudding and brown in a 300°F (150°C) oven.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

Sugar and vanilla 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

Cooked rice
Provides the bulk and body that the custard sets around.
Eggs
Set the custard as they cook, giving it a firm, sliceable texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the eggs thicken into a custard.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a molasses flavour to the custard.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Baking the custard in a water bath. Egg proteins set gently at moderate heat. Placing the dish in a water bath keeps the edges from overcooking before the centre sets, which would otherwise make the custard grainy or watery.

Swap the raisin

The recipe marks raisin as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, sugar, butter, egg, milk, vanilla, currant):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, sugar, butter, egg, milk, vanilla, currant. 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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