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Dessert

A George Pudding

A rice pudding made with butter, sugar, allspice, milk, apples, wine, citrus, and eggs, baked in a mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

A George Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. In a deep pan, combine rice, butter, sugar, allspice, and milk.

  3. Bake until set.

  4. Boil rice in a small quantity of milk with lemon peel until tender, then drain.

Make the filling

  1. Mix the rice with apple pulp, white wine, egg yolks, orange, and citron.

  2. Sweeten to taste.

Bake and serve

  1. Line a mold with pastry, then beat egg whites to stiff peaks and fold into the mixture.

  2. Fill the mold and bake until golden brown.

  3. Serve upside down.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Apple + white winetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together372 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rice
Forms the body of the pudding and absorbs liquid as it cooks.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air that lifts and lightens the pudding.
Egg yolks
Enrich the mixture and help it set firm when baked.
Milk
Provides moisture and, with the eggs, helps the pudding set.
Apples
Add moisture, body and fruity sweetness to the filling.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.

The step that matters

Folding the beaten egg whites into the mixture. Stiff egg white foam holds the air that gives the pudding its lift. Stirring vigorously or folding too long deflates the foam, leaving a dense, flat result.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, butter, sugar, milk, apple, white wine, 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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