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 Pudding with 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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Combine chopped apples, cold boiled rice, and milk in a bowl. Mix well to remove lumps.
Make and bake the pudding
Add sugar, lemon juice, lemon rind, and egg yolks. Stir until combined.
Pour mixture into a baking dish and bake until set.
Top and brown
Beat egg whites with a little sugar until stiff peaks form.
Spread beaten egg whites on top of pudding. Brown under the broiler.
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
- Apples
- Add tartness and moisture that balance the sweetness of the pudding.
- Cold boiled rice
- Provides the body and bulk that gives the pudding its structure.
- Milk
- Supplies liquid that cooks with the eggs to form a soft, custard-like set.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the base and help it set into a tender, custardy texture when baked.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into stiff peaks, they form a light topping that browns under the broiler.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps the whipped whites hold their stiff peaks.
The step that matters
Spreading and browning the egg white topping. Whites must be beaten to stiff peaks so they hold their shape, and they brown quickly under the broiler, so they should be watched closely to avoid scorching.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, sugar, lemon, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Orangefits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, sugar, lemon, egg. 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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