Why it works: Rice and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,366 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓
Apple-and-rice Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the apple base
Boil the apples and sugar together until reduced to a smooth pulp, stirring often to prevent burning.
If the apples are very acidic, increase the sugar and add lemon rind or juice to taste.
Mix and bake
Mix in the boiled rice, butter, and eggs while the mixture is still warm.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 to 35 minutes.
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 + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Apple + ricetop 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).
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Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,645 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
- Pudding-apples
- Break down into a smooth pulp that forms the body of the pudding.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the apples and helps reduce them to a thick pulp.
- Boiled rice
- Adds body and bulk, giving the pudding a soft, tender texture.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture, softening the texture of the baked pudding.
- Eggs
- Set during baking to bind the pudding into a sliceable custard-like texture.
The step that matters
Stirring the apples while they boil. Sugar-rich apple pulp scorches easily on the base of the pan, and burnt flavour carries into the whole pudding. Frequent stirring keeps heat even.
Swap the lemon
The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, rice, butter, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Peachfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, rice, butter, 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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