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Dessert

Apple and Rice Pudding

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cinnamon 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 moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Cook the rice

  1. Boil the rice in the milk until very soft.

  2. Add the butter and cinnamon to the rice.

  3. Mix well.

Prepare the apple

  1. Peel and core the apple.

  2. Place the apple in a saucepan with butter and a little water.

  3. Stew the apple until tender.

  4. Place the cooked apple in a small tart dish.

Assemble and bake

  1. Mix the egg with the rice.

  2. Pour the mixture over the apple.

  3. Bake for 10 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

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. Apple + cinnamontop 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
Softens in milk to form the creamy, starchy body of the pudding.
Egg
Sets when baked, binding the rice mixture into a custard-like texture.
Milk
Cooks the rice and adds moisture and richness to the pudding.
Apple
Softens when stewed and adds fruity sweetness and moisture beneath the rice.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Stew the apple until tender. The apple must be fully softened before baking, since the oven is short and will not fully cook a firm apple, and the egg-rice layer sets quickly on top.

Swap the apple

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

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

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