Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
A George Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the filling
Boil the rice in milk with lemon peel until tender.
Drain the rice.
Mash the apples to a dry pulp and mix with rice.
Add white wine, egg yolks, orange, citron, and sugar. Mix well.
Assemble and bake
Line a mold with pastry.
Beat egg whites to stiff peaks.
Fold egg whites into the mixture.
Fill the mold.
Bake until golden brown.
Make the sauce and serve
Simmer wine, sugar, egg yolks, and butter until thickened, stirring constantly.
Serve the pudding upside down with the sauce.
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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Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,634 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Apple + orangetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,230 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Apple + white winetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together372 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Lemon + white winetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,832 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rice
- Cooked until tender, it gives the pudding its body and bulk.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the filling and help set it, adding richness and structure.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks, they lighten the mixture and help it rise.
- Apples
- Mashed to a dry pulp, they add fruit flavour and body to the filling.
- Milk
- Cooks with the rice to make a soft, creamy base.
- White wine
- Adds acidity and aroma to the filling and the sauce.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Stiff whites hold air that lightens the filling and helps it rise in the oven. Overmixing or deflating them with a heavy stir makes the pudding dense.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, lemon, white wine, egg, orange, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Peachfits about as well
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, lemon, white wine, egg, orange, 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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