Why it works: Apple and cinnamon 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 Charlotte
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Butter the bottom and sides of a pudding dish.
Line the dish with thin slices of white bread.
Layer thin slices of apples, sugar, and pieces of butter alternately until the dish is filled.
Soak and weigh
Soak enough thin slices of bread in warm milk to cover the top.
Place a plate and a weight on top to keep the bread pressed down.
Bake and finish
Bake slowly for three hours.
Remove the plate halfway through and sift cinnamon over the top.
Turn the dish frequently for even browning.
Once done, sift white sugar over the top.
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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Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,598 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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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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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- White bread
- Forms the structure of the pudding and soaks up the milk to become soft.
- Apples
- Add moisture and fruity sweetness as they soften during the long bake.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, and helps the top brown as it bakes.
- Warm milk
- Soaks into the bread to moisten it and bind the layers together.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the apples and helps the surface brown during baking.
- Cinnamon
- Adds warm aroma that complements the cooked apples and bread.
The step that matters
Pressing the bread under a plate and weight. Keeping the bread pressed down under the milk lets it soak evenly and prevents dry pockets. Without this, the top layer can stay dry or float, so the pudding bakes unevenly.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, sugar, milk, cinnamon):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Applethe original
- Peachfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, sugar, milk, cinnamon. 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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