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Dessert

A Chartreuse of Apples and Rice

A baked pastry filled with apples and rice, topped with egg yolk and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

A Chartreuse of Apples and Rice

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Boil the rice with the cinnamon in milk until thick, stirring in the rose-water or orange-flower water.

  2. Pare the apples, scoop out the cores, and fill the holes with raspberry jam.

  3. Border a deep dish with pastry.

Assemble

  1. Place the apples inside, leaving space between them.

  2. Fill the dish with the rice.

Finish and bake

  1. Brush the top with the egg yolk.

  2. Sprinkle sugar thickly over it.

  3. Decorate with sweetmeats.

  4. Bake for 1 hour at 400°F (200°C).

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

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

  4. Apple + raspberrytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together282 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Cinnamon + milktop 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

Rice
Thickens into a creamy, pudding-like base that holds the dish together.
Milk
Cooks with the rice to form a rich, tender custard-like filling.
Apples
Soften during baking and add moisture and fruity sweetness to the dish.
Raspberry jam
Fills the apple cores with concentrated sweetness and fruity flavour as it heats.
Egg yolk
Brushed on top, it promotes richer browning and a glossy finish.
Pastry
Forms a border that holds the filling and gives the dish a sturdy edge.

The step that matters

Thickening the rice in milk. Rice must be cooked slowly, stirring, until thick; milk scorches easily on the base, and the starch needs time to swell and soften fully before baking.

Swap the raspberry

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Raspberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, cinnamon, milk, rose, apple, 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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