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 ↓
A Nice and Cheap Dessert
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
Rinse the rice thoroughly and place it in a pot with water, milk, and salt.
Cook until the mixture thickens to a jelly consistency.
Stir in the currant jelly or fruit juice and heat for a few minutes.
Set and serve
Pour the mixture into a mold and let it cool.
Serve with sweetened cream or cream and dry white sugar.
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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Milk + curranttop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,475 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Rice + creamtop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,399 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
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Rice + curranttop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together497 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rice
- Its starch swells and softens in liquid, giving the pudding its body.
- Milk
- Adds richness and creaminess as it thickens with the rice starch.
- Currant jelly
- Adds sweetness, tartness and fruity flavour to the pudding.
The step that matters
Cooking until it thickens to a jelly consistency. Rice starch thickens as it gelatinises in liquid and sets as it cools. Stopping too early leaves the pudding runny, while overcooking can scorch the milk on the bottom of the pot.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, cream):
- Coconutfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Strawberryfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, cream. 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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