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Dessert

Apple-rice Pudding

A baked pudding of apples, rice, milk, sugar, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Apple-rice Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Pare, quarter, and core the apples, then spread them loosely in a buttered pudding dish.

  3. In a bowl, combine the sugar, rice, and milk, then pour the mixture over the apples.

  4. Dot the top with a few bits of butter.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 4 hours.

  2. Serve hot with sweetened whipped cream.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 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

Apples
Soften during baking and release juice, adding moisture and a tart flavor to the pudding.
Rice
Starch swells in the milk and thickens the mixture, giving the pudding its body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that cooks slowly into a creamy, custard-like texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the top brown during baking.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and its flavor carries through the top of the pudding.

The step that matters

Baking long and slowly. Rice starch needs time to fully swell and soften in the milk, and the milk needs gentle, steady heat to thicken without scorching or drying out. Baking at a moderate temperature for the full time gives a creamy, tender pudding.

Swap the apple

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

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

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