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Dessert

Paradise Pudding

A baked apple and currant pudding with bread crumbs, eggs, cider, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cider are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,238 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Paradise Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pare, core, and mince the apples into small pieces.

  2. Mix the apples with the bread crumbs, beaten eggs, sugar, currants, lemon rind, cider, salt, and grated nutmeg.

  3. Pour the mixture into a buttered mold and tie it down with a cloth.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil for 2 hours or steam in an oven for about 1 hour.

  2. Serve hot with sweet sauce.

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 + cidertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,238 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

  3. Currant + cidertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together500 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  4. Apple + curranttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  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

Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding its body and soft texture.
Apples
Add moisture and fruity sweetness that keeps the pudding tender.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and adds a little tenderness to the crumb.
Currants
Add chewy pockets of sweetness and fruit flavour throughout.

The step that matters

Boil for 2 hours or steam in an oven for about 1 hour.. The pudding must cook through gently so the eggs set without curdling or turning rubbery. Keeping the cloth-tied mold snug and the water at a steady simmer helps the pudding hold its shape and cook evenly.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, bread, lemon, egg, cider, sugar, nutmeg. 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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