Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Rice Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the rice
Boil the rice in sweet cream with the grated lemon peel until cooked.
Make the custard
Beat the sugar with the lemon juice.
Boil the mixture until stiff.
Stir the stiff mixture into the cooked rice off the heat.
Soak the gelatine in warm water.
Add the soaked gelatine to the rice mixture.
Set and serve
Layer the mixture with canned or cooked fruit in a dish.
Let the mixture cool until stiff.
Turn it out onto a platter and garnish with fruits.
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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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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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 + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,744 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Best rice
- Forms the bulk of the pudding and gives it its body and soft texture.
- Sweet cream
- Cooks into the rice, adding richness and moisture to the pudding.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps it thicken when boiled with the juice.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the sugar and cream.
- Red gelatine
- Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when turned out onto a platter.
The step that matters
Stir the stiff mixture into the cooked rice off the heat. Adding the hot sugar mixture off the heat and stirring it in gradually helps it blend evenly without curdling or forming lumps in the rice.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, cream, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Raisinfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, cream, sugar. 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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