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Dessert

Apples and Rice

A steamed rice dessert served with cooked apples, syrup, whipped cream, and jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Apples and Rice

Ingredients

Directions

Make the rice

  1. Steam the rice in a double boiler with salt, milk, and water until soft.

  2. Add more milk or water if necessary, along with nutmeg, cinnamon, or rose water, and chopped almonds if desired.

  3. Once the rice is soft and has absorbed the liquid, press it into the shape of a bowl.

Cook the apples

  1. Cook the apples in a syrup made of half as much water as sugar until tender.

  2. Carefully remove the apples with a large spoon and place them around the rice, filling the inside with them.

  3. Boil the syrup down and pour it around the apples.

Fill and serve

  1. Fill each apple with whipped cream and top with a piece of currant or raspberry jelly.

  2. Serve hot or cold.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Nutmeg + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Cinnamon + appletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Softens and absorbs the milk and water, forming a starchy base that holds its shape when pressed.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess as the rice simmers and absorbs the liquid.
Sour apples
Hold their shape when cooked in syrup and provide tartness that balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Sweetens the syrup and helps the apples turn tender and glossy as it reduces.
Whipped cream
Adds a light, creamy fat that contrasts with the tender apples and rice.

The step that matters

Pressing the rice into a bowl while it is still soft. Rice must be fully softened and have absorbed its liquid before pressing. Starch from the grains gels as it cools, so the shape sets only if the rice is cooked through and not wet.

“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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