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Dessert

A Chartreuse of Apple and Rice

A baked dessert of apples filled with raspberry jam, surrounded by cinnamon‑milk rice, encased in pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and apple 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 ↓

A Chartreuse of Apple and Rice

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the rice

  1. Boil the rice with the cinnamon in the milk until thick, stirring in the rose water or orange flower water.

Prepare the apples

  1. Pare the apples, scoop out the cores, and fill them with raspberry jam.

Assemble and bake

  1. Border a deep dish with pastry.

  2. Place the apples inside, leaving space between them.

  3. Fill the gaps with rice.

  4. Brush the entire dish with the egg yolk.

  5. Sprinkle sugar thickly over it.

  6. Decorate the top with sweetmeats.

  7. Bake for 1 hour at 400°F (200°C).

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

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

  4. Apple + raspberrytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together282 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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 filling that fills the gaps around the apples.
Milk
Provides moisture and richness, cooking with the rice into a smooth, thick base.
Apples
Provide the main fruit body and moisture that softens and flavours the pie as it bakes.
Raspberry jam
Adds sweetness and concentrated fruit flavour inside each apple.
Egg yolk
Brushed over the pastry, it promotes browning and a glossy golden finish.
Sugar
Sprinkled over the top, it caramelises in the oven for sweetness and browning.

The step that matters

Stirring the rice in the milk. Milk and starch scorch and stick to the bottom of a pan when left unstirred. Constant stirring keeps the rice smooth and evenly thickened before it goes into the dish.

Swap the raspberry

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Raspberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, cinnamon, milk, rose, apple, egg, sugar. 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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