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Rice, with Pears

A sweet rice pudding flavored with lemon and served with pears and syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pear and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 218 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Rice, with Pears

Ingredients

Directions

Make the rice

  1. Wash the rice.

  2. Put the rice in a saucepan with the milk, lemon rind, sugar, and butter.

  3. Stir the rice until it boils.

  4. Remove from heat and let it simmer gently until tender and the milk is absorbed.

  5. Beat the rice for 3-4 minutes.

  6. Press it into a damp mold.

  7. Set it in a cool place to stiffen.

Poach the pears

  1. Peel and halve the pears.

  2. Place the pears in a saucepan with the lemon juice, water, and sugar.

  3. Simmer the pears until tender but not broken.

  4. Lift them out gently and let them cool.

  5. Boil the syrup until thick.

  6. Optionally dissolve in apricot marmalade.

Serve

  1. Turn the rice out of the mold.

  2. Arrange the pears around it.

  3. Pour the syrup over.

  4. Garnish with angelica or lemon rind.

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. Pear + apricottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together218 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Lemon + angelicatop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together189 recipes

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

  3. Milk + buttertop 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. Apricot + angelicatop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together117 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Starch that softens in milk and sets into a firm, sliceable pudding when cooled.
Milk
Liquid that the rice absorbs, giving the pudding its creamy, tender body.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more rounded mouthfeel.
Pears
Fruit that becomes tender when gently poached and adds mild sweetness and fragrance.
Lemon juice
Acidity that brightens the sweet syrup and helps the pears keep their colour.
Sugar
Sweetens the rice and the poaching syrup, and thickens the syrup as it reduces.

The step that matters

Simmer the pears until tender but not broken. Pears cook quickly and turn mushy if boiled hard. Gentle simmering softens them while keeping their shape for serving.

Swap the apricot

The recipe marks apricot as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, lemon, sugar, butter, pear, angelica):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotthe original
  3. Applefits about as well
  4. Figfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, lemon, sugar, butter, pear, angelica. 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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