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Rice Dumplings

Rice dumplings made with soaked rice, apple filled with sugar and cloves, boiled and served with melted butter or wine sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Rice Dumplings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rice

  1. Soak the rice in lukewarm water until it is white.

  2. Parboil the rice and drain off the water.

  3. Spread the rice on a cloth, about 1 inch thick, in a circle large enough to envelope the apple.

Assemble and cook

  1. Peel, core, and fill the apple with Lisbon sugar and cloves.

  2. Carefully place the rice around the apple and tie the cloth tightly at the top.

  3. Boil for 30 minutes and serve with melted butter or wine sauce.

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 + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Rice + clovetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Rice + appletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,311 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 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
Forms the tender outer wrapper that encloses and cooks around the apple.
Apple
Becomes soft and sweet during boiling, forming the dumpling's filling.
Lisbon sugar
Sweetens the apple and draws out juices as it melts into the fruit.

The step that matters

Wrapping the rice tightly in the cloth. Rice must be pressed evenly around the apple and the cloth tied firmly, so the dumpling holds its shape and the rice cooks into a cohesive wrapper rather than falling apart in the water.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

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