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 ↓
Rice Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Bake the base
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, combine the boiled rice, grated lemon rind, egg yolks, and enough milk to thin the mixture.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake until set.
Cool and top
Let the pudding cool.
In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Gradually add the sugar and lemon juice, continuing to beat until well combined.
Spread the meringue over the cooled 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 + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Boiled rice
- Forms the body and bulk of the pudding as it sets.
- Egg yolks
- Bind the mixture and help it set into a soft, rich custard.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and thins the mixture so it bakes evenly.
- Egg whites
- Whip into a foam that forms the light, airy meringue topping.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and stabilises the whipped meringue.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens flavour and helps steady the egg white foam.
The step that matters
Let the pudding cool before spreading the meringue. Spreading meringue over a warm base can cause it to slide or weep liquid. A cooled, set base gives the meringue a firm surface to hold and brown well.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, egg, milk, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, egg, milk, sugar. 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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