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Souffle of Rice and Apple

A baked rice and apple souffle with a sugared crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Cinnamon and apple 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 ↓

Souffle of Rice and Apple

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rice

  1. Blanch the rice, strain it, and boil in milk with lemon peel and cinnamon until dry.

Build the soufflé

  1. Cool the rice and form a 3‑inch high rim around a baking dish, egging the rim to make it stick.

  2. Egg the rice all over and fill the dish halfway with apple marmalade.

  3. Beat the egg whites to a fine froth and spread over the marmalade.

Bake

  1. Sift fine sugar over the top and bake in a warm oven until beautifully colored.

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. Cinnamon + appletop 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. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Carolina rice
Forms the starchy base that sets into a firm, creamy body as it cooks in milk.
Milk
Cooks into the rice, giving it moisture and a soft, custard-like texture.
Eggs
Bind the rice and set the rim, and whipped whites lift the top to a light, airy crust.
Apple marmalade
Adds fruity sweetness and moisture beneath the rice and egg layer.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites to a fine froth. Whites must be whipped to a stable foam so they trap air and rise in the oven; underwhipped or deflated whites will bake flat and dense.

Swap the apple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, lemon, cinnamon, egg, 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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