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Dessert

Souffle of Rice and Apples

A baked souffle made with rice, apples, and spices, topped with puff pastry and sweet preserves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Souffle of Rice and Apples

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.

Prepare the base

  1. Boil the rice until tender, then pound the boiled rice finely.

  2. Mix in the egg yolks, sugar, nutmeg, and pounded cinnamon.

  3. Edge a baking dish with puff pastry.

  4. Place the rice mixture around the edge of the dish.

Fill and bake

  1. In the center, add apple marmalade, a little quince jam, and a splash of brandy.

  2. Beat the egg whites until frothy, then pour them over the fruit.

  3. Sift sugar on top.

  4. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Apple + quincetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together506 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Cinnamon + quincetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together199 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Cinnamon + appletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Rice + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Provides body and bulk, so the soufflé base holds a soft, tender structure.
Egg yolks
Enrich the base and help it set into a custard-like texture when baked.
Egg whites
Beaten to foam, they trap air and lift the soufflé as it bakes.
Apple marmalade
Adds fruit sweetness and moisture to the centre of the dish.
Quince jam
Contributes concentrated fruit flavour and sweetness to the filling.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites until frothy. Whites must be whipped to a stable foam to trap air. Under-beaten whites collapse and give a dense result, while the proteins set as the heat coagulates them in the oven.

Swap the quince

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, egg, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, apple, brandy):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Quincethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, egg, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, apple, brandy. 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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