Why it works: Apple and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,311 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
American Apple Puddings
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Core the apples without cutting them in half.
Fill the holes with washed rice.
Tie each apple tightly in a pudding bag.
Cook
Boil the apples for 1 to 1.5 hours.
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.
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Apple + ricetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,311 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
- Form the pudding body and soften into a tender, sweet filling as they cook.
- Washed rice
- Fills the cored holes, absorbing juices and adding body to the centre of each apple.
The step that matters
Tying each apple tightly in its bag. A loose bag lets water seep in and wash out flavour, and a tight wrap holds the rice and apple together as they swell and soften during boiling.
“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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