Why it works: Peach and apple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 303 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Fruit Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Place the fruit in a tin basin and sprinkle sugar over it, adding a little water.
If using peaches, peel and add them whole.
Make and add the crust
In a bowl, mix flour, butter or lard, salt, and baking powder.
Add enough water or milk to form a dough, then roll it out.
Cover the fruit with the rolled-out crust.
Steam and serve
Cover the basin with another two-quart basin to allow the crust to rise.
Set it on the stove to steam as the fruit cooks.
Serve with cream and sugar.
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.
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Peach + appletop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together303 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Peach + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together781 recipes
Shared aroma: phellandrene (minty).
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Apple + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Flour
- Forms the dough structure that holds the crust together while it steams.
- Butter or lard
- Adds fat that tenderises the crust and keeps it short.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas that makes the crust rise and lighten.
- Fruit
- Provides the main flavour and moisture that softens the pudding as it cooks.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and helps draw out its juices.
The step that matters
Covering the basin to steam. The lid must trap steam so the crust rises and cooks through; if steam escapes, the crust can stay dense and dry while the fruit overcooks.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peach, sugar, flour, butter, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Apricotfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against peach, sugar, flour, butter, 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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