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Dessert

Apples and Rice

A baked dish of apples and rice with cinnamon, sugar, butter, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Apples and Rice

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 apples

  1. Combine apples, cinnamon, sugar, butter, and enough water to prevent burning in a saucepan.

  2. Simmer gently until reduced to a pulp.

  3. Spread the mixture in a well-oiled pie dish.

Make the rice topping

  1. Boil rice in milk with a little cinnamon and sugar until the milk is absorbed and the rice is soft.

  2. Mix in the beaten egg yolks. Boil for 2–3 minutes, stirring quickly.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the rice mixture over the apples. Smooth it evenly.

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

  3. Serve with sifted sugar.

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 + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Cinnamon + ricetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  5. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Break down into a pulp that forms the moist, sweet base layer.
Rice
Softens in milk and thickens into a creamy layer that sets when baked.
Milk
Cooks with the rice to give a creamy, tender texture.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and set the rice mixture, helping it hold together when baked.
Sugar
Sweetens the apples and rice and helps the top brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Boil the rice mixture for 2–3 minutes while stirring quickly. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if they get too hot or sit still, so stirring quickly keeps the mixture smooth while the yolks thicken it.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, sugar, butter, rice, milk, 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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