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Dessert

Richer Rice Pudding

A baked rice pudding made with rice, milk, butter, sugar, eggs, and lemon rind.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Richer Rice Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare and cook the rice

  1. Wash the rice thoroughly.

  2. Pour the milk over the rice and stew it slowly until tender.

Finish and bake

  1. Stir in the butter and sugar before removing from heat.

  2. Let it cool slightly, then add the whisked eggs and lemon rind.

  3. Bake in a gentle oven at 300°F (150°C) for 30 to 40 minutes.

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.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,366 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Whole rice
Provides the body of the pudding as its starch swells and thickens in the milk.
Milk
Cooks the rice into a soft, creamy base and forms the pudding's liquid.
Butter
Adds fat for a rich, smooth mouthfeel and a softer texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the top brown lightly in the oven.
Eggs
Set as they bake, giving the pudding structure and a custard-like firmness.
Lemon rind
Adds a bright aroma that lifts the flavour of the rich milk and eggs.

The step that matters

Add the whisked eggs after the rice cools slightly. Eggs begin to set at around 160°F (70°C). Adding them to a very hot mixture can scramble them into lumps, so letting it cool a little first keeps the pudding smooth.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, butter, sugar, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, butter, sugar, 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.

More rice pudding recipes

Baked 88Apple 84with Meringue 40Boiled 38French 30Lemon 29 See all 1,220 →

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