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Dessert

Bread and Apple Pudding II

A baked pudding made with stale breadcrumbs, sliced apples, sugar, cinnamon, butter, and molasses or treacle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Bread and Apple Pudding II

Ingredients

Directions

Assemble

  1. Arrange alternate layers of stale breadcrumbs and thinly-sliced apples in a pudding dish.

  2. Sprinkle each layer with sugar, a little cinnamon, and small dots of butter.

  3. Finish with a layer of breadcrumbs on top.

Bake

  1. Pour 1 cup of molasses or treacle mixed with a little water over the top, or use a glass of wine or water if preferred.

  2. Cover and bake for 30 minutes, then remove the cover and bake for an additional 45 minutes or more.

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 + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Cinnamon + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

Stale breadcrumbs
Form the bulk of the layers and soak up the liquid to set a soft, spoonable texture.
Thinly-sliced apples
Add moisture and tartness that balances the sweet molasses.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the top and apples caramelise as they bake.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the layers.
Molasses or treacle
Adds dark sweetness and depth, and darkens the pudding as it bakes.

The step that matters

Covered first bake, then uncovered. Baking covered first traps steam so the apples soften and the crumbs absorb the liquid; uncovering afterwards lets the top dry and brown. Removing the cover too early can leave the centre wet.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cinnamon, butter, molasses):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon, butter, molasses. 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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