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Dessert

A Simple Apple Pudding

A simple apple pudding made by stewing apples, mixing with butter, sugar, spices, eggs, and milk, then baking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

A Simple Apple Pudding

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 the apples

  1. Peel, quarter, and core the apples.

  2. Stew the apples in water until perfectly soft, then rub through a sieve.

Make the pudding

  1. In a bowl, combine the apple puree with butter, sugar, mace, nutmeg, lemon rind, egg yolks, and milk.

  2. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and gently fold them into the apple mixture.

  3. Pour the mixture into a paste-lined plate and bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.

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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Apple + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide the bulk and fruity flavor of the pudding once stewed and pureed.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard and help it set into a tender, cohesive texture when baked.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they lighten the mixture and help it rise and set with air.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender mouthfeel to the pudding.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and contributes to browning during baking.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stiff whites hold air that gives lift. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring vigorously deflates the foam and leaves a denser pudding.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, butter, sugar, nutmeg, lemon, egg, milk):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, butter, sugar, nutmeg, lemon, egg, milk. 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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