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Dessert

Apples and Rice, Ornamented

A pie case filled with rice and topped with a pyramid of apples, preserved cherries, and angelica, glazed with apricot jam.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 777 recipes. Both carry gamma-undecalactone, which smells peach, sweet. The science ↓

Apples and Rice, Ornamented

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apples

  1. Peel and core the apples smoothly.

  2. Boil the apples gently in light syrup for about 10 minutes until tender.

Prepare the rice and case

  1. Prepare rice as for a cake, keeping it firmer than usual.

  2. Bake a circular or oval pie case about 3 inches high.

  3. Fill the baked pie case with prepared rice.

Decorate and serve

  1. Arrange the apples in a pyramid on top.

  2. Place some rice in the center of the apples.

  3. Mask the dish with diluted apricot jam.

  4. Insert a preserved cherry into the center of each apple.

  5. Add angelica pieces between the apples.

  6. Serve hot, dishing up shortly before serving.

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 + apricottop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together777 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-undecalactone (peach, sweet).

  2. Apricot + angelicatop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together117 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Rice + angelicatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together54 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Apple + angelicatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Rice + apricottop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together353 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-undecalactone (peach, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Golden pippins apples
Hold their shape when boiled and form the tender, fruity pyramid on top.
Light syrup
Sweetens the apples and carries flavor as they gently poach until tender.
Rice
Forms a firm, cake-like base that supports the apples and absorbs flavor.
Apricot jam
Glazes the dish with sweetness and a glossy finish.

The step that matters

Boil the apples gently. Gentle simmering softens the apples evenly without breaking them apart. A hard boil can split the fruit and turn it mushy, spoiling the pyramid shape.

Swap the angelica

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, syrup, rice, apricot):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Angelicathe original
  4. Clovefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, syrup, rice, apricot. 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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