Why it works: Apple and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,774 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Apple Snowballs
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the rice and milk until three-quarters cooked, then strain.
Pare and core the apples without cutting them in half.
Place a small amount of sugar and a clove inside each apple.
Surround each apple with rice and tie each ball in a cloth.
Boil the balls until the apples are tender.
Remove the cloths and serve.
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 + clovetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,774 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Rice + clovetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,982 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Rice + appletop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,311 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Rice + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,744 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, apple, sugar):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Gingerfits better
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, apple, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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