Why it works: Cinnamon and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,137 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Rice Custard
Ingredients
Directions
Make the rice custard
Sweeten 1 pint of milk with ½ cup loaf sugar and bring it to a boil with a stick of cinnamon.
While boiling, stir in fine rice flour until the mixture thickens.
Remove from heat and stir in the beaten egg whites, cooking for 2-3 minutes.
Pour the mixture into cups placed in cold water without wiping them.
Once cold, turn them out onto a serving dish.
Make the custard and serve
For the custard, mix the egg yolks with ½ pint of milk and pour around the rice custard.
Top with red currant jelly or raspberry jam.
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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Cinnamon + ricetop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,137 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Fine rice flour
- Thickens the milk so the mixture sets firm enough to turn out of the cups.
- Egg whites
- Add structure and help the rice custard set once cooked.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the custard sauce, giving it body and a smooth, rich texture.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the milk and adds flavour to the custard base.
The step that matters
Stirring in the beaten egg whites. Adding egg whites to hot mixture and cooking briefly lets the proteins set gently; overheating can make them curdle or turn grainy, so keep the heat controlled while stirring.
Swap the red currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, cinnamon, rice, flour, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Blueberryfits better
- Red currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, cinnamon, rice, flour, 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.
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