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Oxford Pudding

A boiled rice pudding with sultanas, apples, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Oxford Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the rice.

  2. Mix it with the sultanas, chopped apples, cinnamon, and sugar.

  3. Tie the mixture in a cloth, leaving room for swelling.

Cook

  1. Boil in plenty of water for 1½ hours until the rice is soft.

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. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Rice + appletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,311 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Patna rice
Provides the main body as its starch softens and thickens the pudding while absorbing water.
Sultanas
Add chewy texture and sweetness, and plump with moisture during the long boil.
Apples
Add moisture and fruity sweetness, softening as they cook into the rice.
Cinnamon
Adds warm aroma that complements the sweet fruit and rice.

The step that matters

Leave room for swelling when tying the cloth. Rice grains absorb water and expand as their starch gelatinizes. If the cloth is tied too tightly, the swelling is restricted, so the pudding can burst the cloth or cook unevenly.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Blueberryfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, cinnamon, 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.

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