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
Boil the rice in milk with lemon peel until tender.
Drain the rice.
Line a mold with pastry.
Make the filling
Mix the rice with boiled apples, white wine, egg yolks, orange, citron, and sugar.
Beat the egg whites until frothy and fold them into the rice mixture.
Bake and serve
Fill the mold.
Bake until golden brown.
Serve upside down.
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
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and help bind the filling as it sets.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to froth, they lighten the filling and help it rise and set.
- Whole rice
- Cooked in milk until tender, it forms the body of the pudding.
- Apples
- Add moisture, body and fruity sweetness to the filling.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and aids browning in the oven.
The step that matters
Fold the egg whites into the rice mixture. Whipped egg whites trap air that gives lightness. Folding gently, rather than stirring, keeps that air in, so the pudding rises and sets lighter rather than 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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