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
Make the rice
Boil the rice in milk with the lemon peel until tender.
Drain the rice.
Mix and fill
Mix the drained rice with the boiled apples, white wine, egg yolks, orange, citron, and sugar.
Line a mold with pastry and beat the egg whites until frothy.
Fold the egg whites into the rice mixture and fill the mold.
Bake and serve
Bake until golden brown and 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 whites
- Beaten until frothy and folded in, they lighten the mixture and help it rise and set.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and help bind the rice mixture as it sets in the oven.
- Whole rice
- Cooked tender in milk, it forms the body of the pudding.
- Milk
- Cooks the rice until tender and adds creaminess to the pudding.
- Apples
- Add moisture, sweetness and fruity flavour to the filling.
- Citron
- Adds a bitter, aromatic citrus note to the filling.
The step that matters
Folding the egg whites into the rice mixture. Beaten egg whites hold air, and overmixing or deflating them makes the filling dense. Fold gently so the foam stays intact and the pudding rises and sets light in the oven.
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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