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Dessert

Geneva Pudding

A baked dessert of rice and apple puree, sweetened with sugar and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Geneva Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Cook the rice

  1. Wash and drain the rice.

  2. Place the rice in a saucepan with 2 pints of milk and 2 pinches of salt.

  3. Cook the rice until tender.

  4. Add more milk as needed.

  5. Sweeten to taste.

Make the apple purée

  1. Pare, core and slice the apples.

  2. Combine the apples with the butter, cinnamon, and 2 tablespoons of sugar in a jar.

  3. Place the jar in a saucepan half full of boiling water.

  4. Cook until the apples are tender.

  5. Rub the apple mixture through a fine sieve.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter a fireproof china soufflé dish.

  2. Layer the rice and apple purée alternately, with rice on the bottom and top.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 35 to 40 minutes.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 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
Swells in milk to form the soft, creamy body of the pudding.
Sour cooking apples
Provide tart flavour and, once puréed, a smooth moist layer.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the apple layer.
Milk
Cooks into the rice, supplying moisture and a soft, creamy texture.

The step that matters

Rub the apple mixture through a fine sieve. Cooked apples hold their shape unless broken down; pressing them through a sieve yields a smooth purée that layers evenly and bakes into a uniform custard-like texture rather than chunky pieces.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, butter, sugar, milk, cinnamon. 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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