Why it works: Rice and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,374 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Windsor Palace Puddings
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the base
Boil the rice in milk until it forms a thick paste.
Pare and core the apples.
Scald the apples.
Beat the apples with the rice.
Make the mixture
Add sugar, lemon peel, and lemon juice or essence, and mix well.
Beat the egg whites until frothy.
Fold the egg whites into the mixture gently.
Bake and serve
Dip a basin or mold in boiling water.
Pour the mixture into the basin while hot.
Place the mold in a pan of boiling water.
Cook until the egg whites are set.
Serve with a custard made from the yolks of the eggs.
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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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + appletop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Rice + appletop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,311 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,551 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rice
- Cooked in milk, its starch thickens the mixture into a firm, paste-like body.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that cooks the rice and gives the pudding its soft, moist texture.
- Apples
- Form the bulk of the pudding, adding moisture, body and fruity flavour.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the apples and lemon.
- Egg whites
- Whipped and folded in, they trap air and set to give the pudding its light structure.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites gently. Whipped egg whites hold air that gives the pudding its lift. Stirring vigorously knocks this air out, so the pudding sets dense rather than light.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, sugar, lemon, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Orangefits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, sugar, lemon, 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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