Name: Rock Cream
Ingredients: 1 teacup of rice; 2 cups of new milk; 2 tablespoons of powdered loaf sugar; currant jelly or preserved fruit

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 ↓

Rock Cream

Ingredients

1 teacup of rice
2 cups of new milk
2 tablespoons of powdered loaf sugar
currant jelly or preserved fruit

Directions

Make the pudding

Boil the rice in new milk until soft.
Sweeten the milk with powdered sugar.

Serve

Pile the rice onto a serving dish.
Add square lumps of currant jelly or preserved fruit on top.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,374 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk + curranttop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,475 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together77,875 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Rice + sugartop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,744 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + curranttop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together12,256 recipes

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

Rice: Softens as it simmers in milk, giving the pudding its body and thick, creamy texture.
New milk: Cooks with the rice to form the creamy base of the pudding.
Powdered loaf sugar: Sweetens the milk and rice, dissolving evenly because it is already powdered.
Currant jelly or preserved fruit: Adds tart, fruity sweetness that contrasts with the mild, creamy rice.