Name: Rice-pudding, with Apples
Ingredients: 10 ounces rice; boiled milk (enough to moisten rice to twice its height); sugar (to taste); a little chopped lemon zest; a handful of dried raisins; 5 whole eggs; butter (for greasing); bread crumbs (for coating the mold)

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Rice-pudding, with Apples

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Blanch the rice, then drain and refresh it.
Return the rice to a stewpan and moisten with boiled milk to twice its height.
Bring the liquid to a boil, then reduce to a very mild fire.
Sweeten the mixture when nearly done.
After 15 minutes, remove from heat and add lemon zest, raisins, and eggs one by one, stirring well.
Butter a charlotte mold and coat it with bread crumbs.
Fill the mold with the cooled rice mixture and place it on a baking sheet.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 40 minutes.
Once out of the oven, scoop out a round from the top with a knife.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,374 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,366 recipes

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

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

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, sugar, raisin, egg, butter, bread):

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Coconutfits better
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, sugar, raisin, egg, butter, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.