Name: Baked Apples Pudding
Ingredients: 5 moderate-sized apples; 2 tablespoons finely chopped suet; 3 eggs; 3 tablespoons flour; 1 pint milk; a little grated nutmeg

Why it works: Flour and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Baked Apples Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Mix the flour with the milk to form a smooth batter.
Whisk the eggs well and add them to the batter.
Pour the batter into a well-buttered pie dish.

Add the apples

Clean the apples without peeling them.
Cut the apples in halves and remove the cores.
Place the apple halves in the batter with the skin side up.
Sprinkle the chopped suet on top and grate a little nutmeg over the suet.

Bake

Bake for 1 hour.

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.

Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Apple + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,104 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,790 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,685 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Eggs: Bind the batter and help it set into a custard-like pudding as it bakes.
Flour: Thickens the milk and eggs into a smooth batter that holds the apples.
Milk: Forms the liquid base of the batter, giving a soft, moist texture.
Apples: Provide fruit flavour and moisture, softening as they bake in the batter.
Suet: Melts over the surface during baking, adding richness and fat to the pudding.