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Dessert

Baked Apple Pudding

A baked dessert of stewed apples mixed with bread crumbs, sugar, eggs, and spices, topped with candied lemon peel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Baked Apple Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a warm oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Slice the apples.

  2. Place them in a saucepan with the water.

  3. Stew until tender.

  4. Drain the water.

  5. Mash the apples until smooth.

  6. Mix in the bread crumbs.

  7. Sweeten with powdered sugar.

  8. Whisk the eggs and yolks.

  9. Add to the apple mixture along with lemon peel, nutmeg, and candied lemon peel.

  10. Melt the butter and mix it in.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a baking dish with puff pastry.

  2. Create an edge with more pastry.

  3. Pour the apple mixture into the center.

  4. Top with additional candied lemon peel or citron slices.

  5. Bake in a warm oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Apple + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Apples
Break down into a soft, smooth base that gives the pudding its body and sweetness.
Stale bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help thicken the mashed apple mixture so it holds its shape.
Eggs
Set during baking to bind the filling into a custard-like texture.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help the filling set smoothly and tender.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender crumb.
Puff pastry
Forms a crisp, golden shell that holds the filling as it bakes.

The step that matters

Stew the apples until tender, then drain and mash. If the apples are not cooked fully soft, or are left too wet, the mashed base will be lumpy or watery, and the filling may not set well in the oven.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Applethe original

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