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 ↓
Windsor Palace Puddings
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the apple base
Boil the rice in milk until it forms a thick paste.
Pare, core, and scald the apples.
Beat the apples with the rice.
Add sugar, lemon peel, and lemon juice or essence, mixing well.
Make the pudding
Beat the egg whites until frothy.
Fold the frothy egg whites into the mixture gently.
Dip a basin or mold in boiling water.
Pour the mixture into the hot basin.
Place the mold in a pan of boiling water and cook until the egg whites are set.
Serve
Prepare a custard with the egg yolks.
Pour the custard around the pudding when serving.
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 pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Milk + appletop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
-
Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
-
Rice + appletop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,311 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Boiled in milk to form a thick paste that gives the pudding its body.
- Egg whites
- Beaten and folded in to lighten the mixture and set it as it cooks.
- Apples
- Form the main fruit base, adding flavour and moisture to the pudding.
- Egg yolks
- Make the custard that is poured around the pudding, adding richness.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to the apple mixture.
The step that matters
Folding the egg whites. Egg whites hold air only when beaten to a froth and folded in gently. Stirring them hard knocks out the air, so the pudding will not rise and set light.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, sugar, lemon, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Orangefits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, sugar, lemon, 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.
You might also like
The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.
Lemon Rice Pudding19 recipes
Apple Pudding256 recipes
Lemon Cake228 recipes
Lemon Ice147 recipes