Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓
Rice Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the rice
Bring 3 cups of water to a boil.
Gradually add 1 cup of washed rice, keeping the water boiling.
Cook slowly until the rice is almost tender.
Remove the rice from heat.
Place the rice in a sieve and rinse with cold water.
Make the custard
Beat the eggs lightly.
Mix the eggs with the milk, sugar, salt, vanilla, nutmeg, and raisins.
Combine the mixture with the washed rice and pour into a greased baking dish.
Bake
Place the baking dish in a larger pan of water and bake until the custard sets.
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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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,377 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Rice + nutmegtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,779 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
- Eggs
- Bind the pudding and set the custard as it bakes, giving it structure.
- Sweet milk
- Provides the liquid base of the custard and adds richness and moisture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps tenderize the custard.
- Rice
- Forms the body of the pudding, absorbing the custard and giving it a soft texture.
The step that matters
Place the baking dish in a larger pan of water and bake until the custard sets.. The water bath moderates the oven heat so the eggs set gently. Baking too hot or without the water bath can overcook the eggs, making the custard grainy or curdled.
Swap the raisin
The recipe marks raisin as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, egg, milk, sugar, vanilla, nutmeg):
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits better
- Blueberryfits better
- Raisinthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, egg, milk, sugar, vanilla, nutmeg. 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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