Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Boiled Apple Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the basin
Make a butter crust using a basic pie crust recipe.
Butter a basin.
Line the basin with some of the crust.
Fill and wrap
Pare, core and slice the apples.
Fill the basin with the sliced apples.
Add sugar, finely minced lemon peel and lemon juice to the apples.
Cover the filling with the remaining crust and pinch the edges together.
Flour a cloth, place it over the pudding and tie it securely.
Boil and serve
Put the pudding in boiling water and boil for 1.5 to 2.5 hours, depending on the size of the pudding.
Carefully turn it out of the basin and serve immediately.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,551 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the structure of the crust that encloses the filling and holds its shape while boiling.
- Butter
- Adds richness and tenderness to the crust and greases the basin so the pudding releases cleanly.
- Apples
- Provide the main filling, softening as they cook and adding moisture and fruity flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the apples and balances the tartness of the lemon.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the apple flavour and helps keep the fruit from browning.
The step that matters
Securing the cloth and boiling. The cloth must be tied firmly and the pudding kept submerged in boiling water for the full time, because a loose wrap lets water in and a dry or unevenly cooked pudding results. Cooking time depends on the pudding's size, so check the basin is fully covered throughout.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, lemon, butter):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, lemon, 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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