Name: Apple Custard
Ingredients: 1 lb Rice; 1 pint Milk; 1 lb Sugar; Yolks of 3 Eggs; Grated Rind of 1 Lemon; 1½ lbs Apples; ½ cup Cold Water

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 ↓

Apple Custard

Ingredients

Directions

Make the rice base

Cook the rice in half the milk until tender.
Add 2 ounces of sugar to the rice.
Place the rice in a glass dish.

Add the apples and custard

Stew the apples with the cold water, lemon rind, and 4 ounces of sugar until tender.
Place the stewed apples on top of the rice.
Make a custard with the remaining milk, egg yolks, and sugar.
Pour the custard over the apples and rice.

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.

Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,374 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,104 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,366 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Rice + appletop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,311 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Lemon + appletop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked 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 until tender, it forms the soft base that holds the apples and custard.
Milk: Cooks the rice and, with the yolks, forms the custard that sets over the dish.
Egg yolks: Thicken the custard as they set, giving it a smooth, rich texture.
Apples: Stewed until tender, they add soft fruit texture and tartness between the rice and custard.
Sugar: Sweetens the rice, apples and custard, and helps the custard stay smooth.