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Rice Dumplings

Rice dumplings made by rolling apples in rice and boiling them with lemon peel or cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,774 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Rice Dumplings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Rinse the rice thoroughly in a towel until clean.

  2. Pare and core the apples, keeping them whole.

Assemble

  1. Dip each apple in water, then roll it in the rice.

  2. Place a piece of lemon peel or a clove in the center of each apple.

  3. Tie each dumpling in a separate cloth.

Cook

  1. Boil the dumplings until the rice is soft.

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. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,366 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Rice + clovetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  5. Rice + appletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,311 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rice
Forms the outer coating that softens into a tender, starchy wrapper around the apple.
Apples
Provide the sweet, moist filling that softens and flavors the dumpling as it cooks.
Lemon peel
Adds a bright, aromatic citrus note to the apple filling.
Cloves
Add a warm, aromatic spice flavor to the apple filling.

The step that matters

Tying each dumpling in its own cloth. The cloth holds the rice tightly against the apple while it cooks. A loose or uneven wrap lets the rice fall away or cook unevenly, so the coating must be snug and secure.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, apple, clove):

  1. Quincefits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, apple, clove. 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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