Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Rich Pudding
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
Wash and soak the rice, then boil it in a saucepan with water until tender.
In a deep pudding dish, combine the milk, sugar, butter, raisins, and beaten egg yolks.
Bake
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 1.5 hours.
Top and serve
Beat the egg whites until frothy, then add the sugar and spread over the pudding.
Brown the topping in the oven for 1 minute.
Serve with or without whipped cream.
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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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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Rice + raisintop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together565 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Milk + raisintop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,155 recipes
Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).
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, absorbing liquid as it cooks.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that sets into a creamy custard.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard as they set, giving it a rich, smooth texture.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a frothy topping that stays light and browns on top.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps the topping brown in the oven.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a softer mouthfeel in the custard.
The step that matters
Browning the topping. Sugar and egg white darken quickly under heat, so one minute can make the difference. Overbaking can scorch the topping and toughen the custard beneath it.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, sugar, butter, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Raisinthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, sugar, butter, 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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