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Dessert

Persian Pudding

A baked apple and rice pudding flavored with lemon, sweetened with sugar, topped with egg yolk custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Persian Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Combine the pulp of the baked apples, boiled rice, sugar, lemon rind, and lemon juice in a bowl.

  2. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

  3. Quickly bring the mixture to a boil.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the boiling mixture into a warm mold.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until set.

  3. Turn out the pudding.

  4. Pour custard made from the egg yolks over the pudding.

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. Apple + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Apple + ricetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,311 recipes

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

  5. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 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

Baked apples
Provide the main fruit flavour and moisture, giving the pudding its body.
Rice
Boiled in milk and beaten smooth, it thickens the mixture and gives a soft, creamy texture.
Egg whites
Beaten to stiff froth, they trap air and help the pudding rise and set light.
Egg yolks
Used in the custard poured over the pudding, adding richness and a smooth, set texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the pudding brown lightly as it bakes.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites gently. Stiff egg white foam traps air that gives the pudding its lift. Stirring it vigorously knocks out that air, leaving a dense, heavy pudding instead of a light one.

Swap the apple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, sugar, lemon, egg. 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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