There are at least fifty different ones. Some are like vanilla pudding with soft rice in it. Some have a custard base. Some are baked custards with the rice in, sort of like bread pudding but with rice instead of bread. Some are rice porridge. Some take that idea to the nth, to the poit where the rice kind of dissolves into the base. Some are just rice and cream that become a version of the previous. Or the same, but made of rice and butter. Some are like very eggy fried rice. Some are in a loaf. Lots more, besides.

Some have raisins and "Fall spices", which I find cloying and can't get past a single spoonful.

What do you want it to be?

I just wanted to experience it in some form. It was very rice porridge. Did have raisins, and some cinnamon and nutmeg. I'd love to hear what be sublime rice pudding, because I was none too impressed. I typically love the recipes on this website, and you see that it is almost five stars by many many people. So I figured it was a good representation.

Meh

Rice pudding is supposed to be more wholesome and less rich than other desserts, right?

I add a bit more sugar than most recipes call for - to taste - and a piece of cinnamon stick, raisins, fresh grated nutmeg and a piece of vanilla bean as well. I usually make it by simmering cooked short grain brown rice and whole milk, with some cream or half & half if I have it. I partially puree it with a stick blender before adding the raisins.

No eggs in mine. I do make tapioca with egg, tho.

Didn't you have Pooh? When We Were Very Young?

http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/a__a__milne/poems/15345

What is the matter with Mary Jane?
She's crying with all her might and main,
And she won't eat her dinner - rice pudding again -
What is the matter with Mary Jane?

"Sublime" rice pudding? That would be any that you don't mind eating. It's not the stuff of sublimity. Congee (Chinese) is rather better, often, and much gloopier. Indian can be better from more sophisticated spicing. In general rice pudding is not unlike Annie's stories of when all they had to eat was mush and she'd rather be hungry. It's leftover rice with watered down milk and an egg. Obviously, most of us can make something palatable, with cream and several eggs and fancy rice, and spices and fruit and all kinds of luxury. ...But why? There's so many much better things to eat than rice pudding.

Even so, people do develop a taste for it, just as some people love cornmeal mush. I'm not sure you will with you first taste at the age of mother of a grown kid, and that not being really good. Usually the first taste of something new is the best because your brain feels pleasure at processing something new. It's okay! Personally, I'd rather have the pudding, custard, or whatever, without the rice...

Nooooo! Rice pudding is delicious! There's a difference between simmered on the stove to baked. I prefer baked. On a cold day it's creamy heaven! https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/baked-rice-pudding

I absolutely agree with Islay and strongly disagree with Pillog. No 'left over rice' is involved. No 'watered down' milk. It is not remotely mushy. I grew up on baked rice pudding using only milk, rice and sugar with a knob of butter and nutmeg on top. No cream. No eggs. No fruit. It's delicious. Parents had to adjudicate on the division of the skin between me and my brother to avoid fights.

Nowadays I make a quicker stove top Cypriot recipe. Similar to this one: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/267906/rizogalo-greek-rice-pudding/ Either is delicious and never rejected by family or guests.

I love rice pudding as floral describes, DH not so much. But he does like an Indian version of rice pudding which has toasted pistachios, currants and light spices and is made with coconut milk.

I appreciate the different opinions 😊

I'm afraid I'm going to be in the meh group forever. It was made with coconut milk and basmati (with spices). I may try it again someday with a different grain and a different milk. Even the zhuzhed up version seemed pretty plain. Sounds like I had a common variant. Glad to know I was unimpressed with something most people are pretty unimpressed with. Could be a good comfort food, though.

Cold rice is not attractive in my opinion. Room temp cooked rice is fine, but, once it has been refridgerated it has the most unpleasant texture.

I make rice pudding for husband in the manner that his grandfather established and has become the gold standard of rice puddings for his family.

They are Italian American and the original pudding was no doubt made with some manner of rice that is soft and lends its starch. Not having the rice that they used in Italy, they adapted by using a longer cooking time. I have found that arborio rice does a nice job.

I used to make it for the kids as a breakfast. Rice pudding can be a perfectly fine and nutritious meal, but I have always thought it to be too substantial to be had as a dessert.

But, I dont eat such things made with milk and eggs, due to a strong personal repulsion of said things.

I always ask husband if he would like me to make it for him, because of the substantial nature of it . It can be a lot like eating dinner.

I suppose it is forbidden to mention canned Ambrosia rice pudding in a cooking forum. LOL.

Not a fan of it, at least what I’ve tried. It‘s more of a texture issue. OTOH, DH loves it.

Floral, I did allow for people liking it. But I think it has to be something you grew up with. I adore my mother's cole slaw mold, but I get it that others shudder at the idea and aren't happy to eat it.

IC, thank-you for linking the recipe. I wouldn't have known exactly what baked was. It sounds like something I was served and hated in the dim past, And I have to admit, to be honest, rather than polite, the recipe sounds vile. Truly. It's like my grandmother's kugels. I enjoyed them well enough as a child, because that was what she made, and starchy/eggy/sweet is okay on a child's palate, but my mother ran from them. I can remember what they were like. Objectively, pretty vile. Probably moreso than that rice pudding. But then, they'd have been made with chicken schmaltz...

Neely, if you like it, it's a fair mention! I had no idea such a thing existed,

I do prefer tapioca pudding to rice.

And I grew up eating those sweet noodle kugels as a kid - they were OK, but I remember not being too crazy about them - esp. with raisins. I think I ate them mostly because they were sweet.

I liked savory potato kugels better. Boy, this is taking me back...

"Fish eggs and glue", according to the old saw, but a local grocery store made tapioca pudding which was really good. It was like vanilla, eggy cornstarch pudding with tapioca pearls cooked to translucent. Sounds iffy, but as goo goes was pretty darned yummy.

Rice Kheer (Pudding) is one of the most popular desserts in India, and I've eaten it there dozens of times. This recipe is similar to the one commonly used. Washing the rice is important, as is the rose water and cardamom. No eggs in this.

Have a look at it and see if it's similar to your recipe, Rob. Absolutely delicious!

Rice Kheer Recipe

I adore tapioca pudding!!! Hot or cold. I think I'll stick with it

I grew up with both the rice and tapioca puddings, and like both.

I prefer the tapioca texture but it doesn't bother me to have the rice.

I like to use day-old rice for rice pudding, likening it to the concept behind fried rice.

Why did you use basmati rice? It's not a pudding rice!!! It's for curry LOL. As Flora said, make it properly before you say it's nasty HAHAHA

I will add to say that if you want proper puddings - i.e. desserts, you'll never get any better than British. We have them all. France may have its patissiers but you can't beat a proper pud. Hot or cold. It's a bit like English tea. (sandwiches and scones/cakes type - not the liquid) Can't beat it.

LOL! IC, we used to have a lovely tea shop run by a couple of lovely British ladies, so I know what you mean, but you put me in mind of my first time in London, where what I received at a perfectly normal looking, crowded with locals place, was tea that tasted like cereal milk (the slightly sweet milk left in the bowl)—I don't mean sweet milky tea. I saw brewed tea go into the cup, but there was no tea flavor— and a sorry sandwich which would have been embarrassed to show up in a first grader's lunch sack. It was very memorable in its really???-ness. It wasn't poor quality ingredients, but laughable in its inadequacy. Every chancy hotel tea I've had since (business meeting kind) has always compared very favorably in that. :D

I adore all kinds of rice prepared every which way. But not rice pudding. Much prefer tapioca and bread pudding over rice pudding.

That said, IMO, short grain white rice is the best choice for rice pudding.

You get good and bad everywhere LOL. My mum took me to the Ritz in London for tea as she said everyone should do it at least once. It was memorable. Beautiful.

Yeah, I was just telling a funny story. That was before foodie culture took over London, I think, but there was a really fantastic Italian restaurant in the vecinity of Tottingham Court Road, with glorious patio seating set well back from the road. Incredibly good food. And much nearer to my young traveller's budget than the Ritz. ;)

Yep, depends on what the recipe is.

I love kheer -- the Indian rice pudding; it's texture is on the soupy side. I use Alton Brown's recipe, but I omit the pistachios and raisins.

Indian Rice Pudding Recipe | Alton Brown | Food Network

My mom used to make rice pudding, but it was totally different. It was very thick, you could almost slice it. I think it might have been the old housewife-y Betty Crocker recipe, but I really don't know. I do remember she used leftover rice and put raisins in it.

There's just been an hour long programme on the radio about the love of rice pudding in France and Italy. The best here comes from the Boulanger. They cook huge pottery bowls of the stuff in the bread ovens. Creamy, a bit caramelly and smooth. Yum.