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Dessert

Apple and Rice Pudding

A baked pudding of rice, milk, butter, sugar, cinnamon, salt, apple, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and apple 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 ↓

Apple and Rice 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.

Prepare the rice

  1. Wash the rice in two waters and boil it in milk until very tender.

  2. Add butter, sugar, cinnamon, and salt to the rice.

Stew the apple

  1. Peel, core, and slice the apple, then steep it with butter, sugar, and a teaspoon of water until tender.

  2. Place the stewed apple in a small tart dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Mix the egg with the rice and pour it over the apple.

  2. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 10 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. Cinnamon + appletop 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. Milk + buttertop 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
Cooks into a tender, creamy base that gives the pudding its body.
Milk
Cooks with the rice to make a soft, creamy custard-like texture.
Egg
Sets when baked, binding the rice mixture into a pudding.
Apple
Adds moisture, tartness, and fruity flavor beneath the rice.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the apple soften and caramelize slightly.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, improving flavor and mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Cook the rice until very tender in milk. Rice that is not fully softened before baking stays firm, because the short baking time will not finish cooking it. Simmering in milk until very tender gives a creamy texture.

Swap the apple

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

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

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