Why it works: Milk and apple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,104 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓
A Pretty Dish of Apples and Rice
6 personsIngredients
Directions
Make the rice
Boil milk with lemon rind for a few minutes, then remove the lemon peel.
Add rice and sugar to the milk and boil gently until the rice is soft.
Let the rice mixture cool.
Prepare the apples
Pare, quarter, and core the apples.
Boil the apples in a syrup of sugar and water until tender.
Lift the apples onto a sieve to drain.
Assemble and bake
Place a middling-sized gallipot in the centre of a dish.
Lay the cooled rice around the gallipot until the top of the gallipot is reached.
Smooth the rice with the back of a spoon.
Stick the apples into the rice in rows, one sloping to the right and the next to the left.
Set the dish in the oven to colour the apples.
Finish and serve
When ready, remove the gallipot, garnish the rice with preserved fruits, and pour custard to level with the top of the rice.
Serve hot.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Apple | 1 medium (182g) | 95 |
| Lemon | juice of 1 lemon (48ml) | 12 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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.
-
Milk + appletop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
-
Lemon + appletop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,551 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Milk
- Forms the creamy base that the rice cooks and softens in.
- Rice (in the method)
- Provides the body of the pudding as it softens and thickens in the milk.
- Apples
- Add fruit flavour and a tender texture, and brown lightly in the oven.
- Boiled custard
- Adds richness and a smooth, sweet topping over the rice.
- Sugar (in the method)
- Sweetens the rice and the apple syrup.
The step that matters
Boil the rice gently until soft. Rapid boiling can scorch the milk on the bottom of the pan and break the rice unevenly. Gentle heat lets the starch swell slowly, giving a smooth, evenly cooked base.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, apple):
- Pearfits better
- Peachfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, apple. 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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