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
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the filling
Boil the rice in milk with lemon peel until tender, then drain the rice.
Boil the apples until they are a dry pulp.
Mix the apples with the rice, white wine, egg yolks, orange, citron, and sugar.
Beat the egg whites until frothy, then fold them into the mixture.
Bake and serve
Line a mold with pastry.
Fill the mold with the mixture.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.
For the sauce, simmer white wine, sugar, egg yolks, and butter without boiling until thick.
Serve the pudding upside down with the sauce.
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.
-
Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,634 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
-
Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Apple + orangetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,230 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Apple + white winetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together372 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
-
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
- Enrich the filling and help it set into a custard-like texture.
- Egg whites
- Beaten to foam, they lighten the mixture and help it rise while baking.
- Rice
- Cooked until tender, it gives the pudding body and a soft, starchy texture.
- Apples
- Boiled to a dry pulp, they add bulk, flavor, and moisture to the filling.
- White wine
- Adds acidity and aroma to the filling and forms the base of the sauce.
The step that matters
Simmering the sauce without boiling. Egg yolks thicken when gently heated, but boiling can curdle them and make the sauce grainy instead of smooth and thick.
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.
You might also like
The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.
Lemon Rice Pudding19 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Apple Pudding256 recipes
Lemon Cake228 recipes