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Dessert

Souffle of Rice and Apples

A baked dish of rice, apples, and egg whites, topped with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,374 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Souffle of Rice and Apples

Oven, in the book's wordsA warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a warm oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Boil the rice in milk until tender and the milk is absorbed.

  2. Let the rice cool, then form a 3-inch high rim around the inside of a dish.

  3. Brush the rim and the dish with egg to help it stick.

Fill and bake

  1. Fill the dish half full with apple marmalade.

  2. Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form and spread them over the marmalade.

  3. Sift lump sugar over the egg whites.

  4. Bake in a warm oven at 350°F (175°C) until browned, or use a salamander to brown the top.

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

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

  2. Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

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

  4. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

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

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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

Rice
Cooked in milk, it forms the sturdy rim that holds the soufflé shape.
Milk
Cooks into the rice, adding moisture and softness to the rim.
Egg whites
Whisked to stiff peaks, they trap air and lift the topping as it bakes.
Apple marmalade
Forms the sweet, fruity base layer beneath the egg white topping.
Lump sugar
Sweetens the topping and helps the surface brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks. Under-whipped whites collapse and stay dense, while over-whipped whites turn grainy and dry and lose their air. Stiff peaks hold the most air, which is what lets the topping rise and set.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, egg, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, egg, 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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