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 and Rice Meringue
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the apples
Pare, core, and quarter the apples.
Combine the sugar with 1 cup of water in a flat pan.
Boil the sugar-water mixture for 1–2 minutes.
Add the apple quarters to the sugar syrup.
Cover and simmer the apples until tender.
Remove the apples from the syrup.
Boil the syrup until thickened.
Cook the rice
Wash the rice.
Place the washed rice in a saucepan with 1 cup of water.
Bring the rice to a boil.
Let the rice absorb the water.
Add 2 cups of milk to the rice.
Cook the rice slowly without stirring for about 20 minutes until tender.
Sweeten the rice.
Add lemon or cinnamon to taste.
Assemble and bake
Form a border of rice on a serving dish.
Place the apples in the center of the dish.
Pour the syrup over the apples.
Whip the egg whites until stiff.
Add 2 teaspoons of sugar gradually to the egg whites.
Pile the whipped egg whites over the rice and apples in a pyramid shape.
Sprinkle sugar thickly on top.
Lightly brown the top in the oven at 400°F (200°C).
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 + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Apple + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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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).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Whipped whites form a stiff foam that sets into the light, crisp meringue topping.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the syrup and rice, and dissolves into the meringue to help it brown.
- Apples
- Cooked in syrup until tender, they provide the fruit centerpiece and sweetness.
- Whole rice
- Simmered in milk and water, it becomes a creamy base that holds the dish together.
- Milk
- Adds richness and moisture to the rice as it cooks, making it creamy.
The step that matters
Whip the egg whites until stiff. Egg whites must be beaten to stiff peaks and sugar added gradually; underwhipped or greasy whites will not hold their shape or brown well in the oven.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, rice, milk, lemon):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Orangefits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, rice, milk, lemon. 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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