Name: South Carolina Pudding
Ingredients: 4 cups apples, stewed and mashed; 1 tablespoon butter or ⅓ cup rich cream; ½ cup rice; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon sugar; 1 teaspoon grated nutmeg; 6 eggs; 2 tablespoons flour; Sugar and butter sauce, flavored with Sherry or Madeira

Why it works: Nutmeg and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

South Carolina Pudding

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.

Prepare the components

Stew enough apples to make 4 cups when mashed.
Season the apples with lemon and butter or cream.
Boil the rice with salt and sugar, then let it cool.
Mix the cooled rice with grated nutmeg.
In a bowl, beat the eggs and flour together.

Combine and cook

Combine the apple mixture, rice, and egg mixture.
Boil or bake the mixture in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

Serve

Serve with sugar and butter sauce, flavored with Sherry or Madeira.

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.

Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Rice + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,779 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,790 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Apple + ricetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,311 recipes

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Bind the mixture and help it set as it cooks.
Apples: Provide the main body, moisture, and fruity flavor of the pudding.
Rice: Adds bulk and a tender, starchy body to the pudding.
Flour: Thickens the egg mixture and adds structure to the pudding.
Butter or rich cream: Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender texture.

Swap the apple

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

Raisinfits better
Vanillafits better
Coconutfits better
Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, rice, sugar, nutmeg, egg, flour. 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.