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Stewed Apples and Rice with Beetroot

A stewed dish of apples, rice, and beetroot flavored with sugar and cinnamon, finished with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Stewed Apples and Rice with Beetroot

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

  1. In a pot, combine the sliced apples, cooked rice, and diced beetroot.

  2. Add sugar and cinnamon, mixing well.

  3. Dot with butter and cook over low heat until apples are tender, about 15 minutes.

  4. Serve warm.

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. Rice + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Beetroot + cinnamontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together125 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Rice + beetroottop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together117 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Soften as they cook, providing the main body, moisture and natural sweetness of the dish.
Cooked rice
Adds bulk and soaks up juices from the apples, giving the dish a soft, thick texture.
Cooked beetroot
Adds earthy sweetness and a deep red colour that tints the whole dish.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the tartness of the apples.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a rounder, smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Cooking over low heat until the apples are tender. Low heat lets the apples soften evenly through without breaking down into mush. It also keeps the sugar and butter from scorching on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the beetroot

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

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Parsnipfits about as well
  4. Beetrootthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, rice, sugar, cinnamon, 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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