Skip to main content
Dessert

Souffle Pudding

A steamed pudding made with ground rice, milk, sugar, vanilla, butter, eggs, and beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Souffle Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Blend the ground rice with a little milk until smooth.

  2. Heat the milk with the vanilla stick until it boils.

  3. Remove the vanilla stick and stir in the butter, sugar, and beaten yolks.

  4. Butter a mold and tie paper around it, extending about six inches above the mold.

  5. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth and fold them into the mixture.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into the mold and steam for one hour.

  2. Place a saucer upside down in a large saucepan. Stand the mold on the saucer.

  3. Add boiling water to reach halfway up the mold.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

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

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

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Rice + vanillatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,352 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Ground rice
Thickens the mixture and gives the pudding its body as it steams.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and set the custard; whites are whipped to lift the mixture for a light, soufflé-like texture.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the pudding.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps give it a fine, even crumb.
Milk
Provides moisture and forms the base that the rice thickens.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites. Whites whipped to a stiff froth trap air that makes the pudding rise and feel light. Folding gently, rather than stirring, keeps that air from being knocked out before steaming.

“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 soufflé pudding recipes

Apple 5 See all 23 →

You might also like

Rice CakeRice Cake120 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesRice CreamRice Cream43 recipesRice JellyRice Jelly42 recipes