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 ↓
Apples and Rice
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 apples
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Peel the apples, remove the cores, and fill them with jam.
Place the apples in a pie dish and bake until soft.
Make the rice topping
In a saucepan, boil the rice and milk together until the rice is soft and the milk is absorbed.
Beat in the egg and sugar, then pour the mixture over the baked apples.
Brush the tops with milk and bake until golden brown.
Serve hot or cold.
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).
-
Apple + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
-
Apple + ricetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,311 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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
- Apples
- Soften during baking and provide the fruity base that the rice topping sits on.
- Rice
- Absorbs milk as it cooks, becoming soft and giving the topping body.
- Milk
- Cooks with the rice to make it tender and adds moisture and richness to the topping.
- Egg
- Binds the rice and sugar mixture so it sets and holds together when baked.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the topping and helps it brown in the oven.
The step that matters
Cooking the rice in milk until the milk is absorbed. If the rice is undercooked or the milk is not fully absorbed, the topping stays grainy and wet. Cooking the rice until soft lets it thicken and become tender before the egg is added and the dish is baked.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, sugar, egg, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, sugar, egg, milk. 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
Apple Pudding256 recipes
Rice Cake120 recipes
Apple Cake80 recipes
Apple Meringue75 recipesThe 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.