Why it works: Rice and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,456 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Sncw Rice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the rice
Boil the rice in the milk for 15 to 20 minutes.
Stir in the sugar and butter until melted.
Set and serve
Pour the mixture into a greased mold.
Let it cool, then turn it out and serve with preserves around it.
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 + almondtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,456 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Butter + milktop 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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Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,245 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,645 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rice
- Its starch thickens the milk and gives the pudding a soft, creamy body as it cooks and cools.
- Whole milk
- Cooks the rice and provides the liquid and richness that make up the creamy base.
- Loaf sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the mild, starchy flavor of the rice and milk.
- Butter
- Adds fat that enriches the texture and gives a smoother mouthfeel.
- Almond essence
- Adds a concentrated almond aroma that flavors the whole dish.
The step that matters
Boiling the rice in the milk. Milk scorches and boils over easily, and the rice must cook until its starch is fully softened and thickened. Too little cooking leaves grainy rice; too much heat burns the milk on the bottom.
Swap the almond
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, sugar, butter, milk):
- Almondthe original
- Peanutfits about as well
- Beansfits less well
- Cocoafits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, sugar, butter, milk. 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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