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Dessert

Apple-and-rice Pudding

A pudding made from boiled apples, sugar, rice, butter, and eggs, baked until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,311 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Apple-and-rice Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the apple base

  1. Boil the apples and sugar together until reduced to a smooth pulp, stirring often to prevent burning.

  2. If the apples are very acidic, increase the sugar and add lemon rind or juice to taste.

Bake

  1. Mix in the boiled rice, butter, and eggs while the mixture is still warm.

  2. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes.

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 + ricetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,311 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Pudding-apples
Break down into a smooth pulp that forms the body and flavour of the pudding.
Sugar
Sweetens the pulp and helps it reduce to a thick, smooth base.
Boiled rice
Adds bulk and a soft, starchy texture to the set pudding.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, more tender crumb.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set it as it bakes.

The step that matters

Stirring the apple and sugar while they boil. Sugar-rich fruit scorches easily on the bottom of the pan as its water evaporates and the sugars caramelise. Frequent stirring keeps the heat even and yields a smooth pulp rather than a burnt, uneven one.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, rice, butter, 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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