Why it works: Milk and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,374 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Apple and Rice Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a cool oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the rice and apples
Wash the rice.
Combine the rice with milk and salt in a double boiler.
Cook for 30 minutes.
In a separate granite pan, bring 1 pint of hot water to a boil.
Add ½ cup of granulated sugar and boil for 5 minutes.
Core, peel, and quarter the apples.
Cook them in the syrup until a straw can easily go through them.
Drain and place in a shallow dish.
Reserve the syrup for future use.
Make the pudding and bake
Beat the egg yolks, add 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar, and stir into the rice mixture.
Remove from heat, add lemon extract, and pour over the apples.
Bake for about 30 minutes.
Beat the egg whites until stiff, gradually add granulated sugar, and heap on top.
Bake in a cool oven at 300°F (150°C) for 15 minutes.
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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Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Apple + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Apple + ricetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,311 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,551 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
- Rice
- Cooks into a thick, creamy base that gives the pudding its body.
- Milk
- Provides liquid that cooks with the rice into a soft, custard-like texture.
- Eggs
- Yolks thicken the rice mixture and whites set into a light, airy topping.
- Apples
- Soften in the sugar syrup and add fruit flavour and moisture to the pudding.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the syrup and apples and helps the meringue topping brown lightly.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites until stiff. Egg whites must be beaten until they hold firm peaks, and sugar is added gradually so the foam stays stable. Under-beaten whites collapse and make the topping flat and dense.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, rice, egg, sugar, lemon):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Orangefits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, rice, egg, sugar, lemon. 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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