Why it works: Milk and rice 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 Caudle
Ingredients
Directions
Boil ½ pint of milk in a saucepan.
In a small bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of ground rice with a little milk until smooth.
Stir the rice mixture into the boiling milk.
Let it simmer until it thickens, then strain carefully.
Sweeten with white sugar to taste.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rice + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,744 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the ground rice thickens into a smooth caudle.
- Ground rice
- Thickens the milk as its starch swells when heated, giving the caudle body.
- White sugar
- Adds sweetness to balance the mild, creamy flavour of the milk.
The step that matters
Mixing the ground rice smoothly before adding it to the milk. Ground rice clumps when it hits hot liquid directly. Mixing it first with a little cold milk separates the particles, so the starch disperses evenly and thickens the caudle without lumps.
“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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