Why it works: Milk and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓
Apple Pudding. —
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the batter
Soak the bread crumbs in the milk until soft, then stir in the sugar.
Assemble
Place the apples in the bottom of a pudding dish, not too closely together.
Pour the batter over and around the apples.
Set the dish in a dripping pan of boiling water.
Bake
Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C), covering until nearly done.
If preferred, cut each apple two-thirds through without separating, arrange, and bake as before.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Milk + appletop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Apple + breadtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,790 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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
- Apples
- Provide the main fruit body and sweet-tart flavor that softens as the pudding bakes.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb the milk and give the batter a soft, pudding-like structure as it bakes.
- Milk
- Supplies the liquid that moistens the bread and keeps the pudding tender.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the top brown lightly in the oven.
The step that matters
Set the dish in a pan of boiling water. The surrounding water moderates the oven heat so the pudding cooks gently and evenly, staying moist and tender instead of drying or scorching at the edges.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, bread, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Applethe original
- Peachfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, bread, 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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