Name: Apple Pudding
Ingredients: 2 cups roasted apples; 1 cup bread crumbs soaked in milk; a handful of almonds, bleached and pounded; 2 ounces fresh butter; 3 eggs; sugar to taste

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Apple Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make and bake the pudding

Mix the roasted apples, soaked bread crumbs, pounded almonds, butter, eggs, and sugar together.
Butter a mold and sprinkle it with bread crumbs.
Pour the mixture into the mold.
Bake until browned and serve hot with cream.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,245 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Apple + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,104 recipes

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

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 as it bakes.
Bread crumbs: Soak up moisture and give the pudding body and a soft structure.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, contributing to a tender texture and browning.
Roasted apples: Provide the main fruit flavor and moisture.
Almonds: Add nutty aroma and a slightly richer flavor.

Swap the almond

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

Pecansfits about as well
Cocoafits about as well
Almondthe original
Chestnutfits about as well

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