Name: Bird's Nest Pudding
Ingredients: 1 pint milk 1 teaspoonful salt sugar place the apples in a deep dish; 1 teaspoonful salt sugar place the apples in a deep dish; 8 apples peeled; 3 teaspoonfuls baking 4 eggs powder 2 cupfuls flour 1 pint milk 1 teaspoonfu; 4 eggs powder 2 cupfuls flour 1 pint milk 1 teaspoonful salt sugar place t; 2 cupfuls flour 1 pint milk 1 teaspoonful salt sugar place the apples in a d; salt

Why it works: Milk and apple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,104 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Bird's Nest Pudding

Ingredients

1 pint milk 1 teaspoonful salt sugar place the apples in a deep dish
1 teaspoonful salt sugar place the apples in a deep dish
8 apples peeled
3 teaspoonfuls baking 4 eggs powder 2 cupfuls flour 1 pint milk 1 teaspoonfu
4 eggs powder 2 cupfuls flour 1 pint milk 1 teaspoonful salt sugar place t
2 cupfuls flour 1 pint milk 1 teaspoonful salt sugar place the apples in a d
salt

Directions

Prepare the apples

Peel and core 8 apples.
Place the apples in a deep dish and fill the openings where the cores were scooped out with sugar. Cover and bake slowly until the apples are done.

Make the batter and bake

Beat the yolks of the eggs lightly. Add flour with baking powder and salt sifted in, then add the milk, and lastly the beaten whites of the eggs.
Grate a little nutmeg over the apples, pour in the batter and bake for 1 hour.

Serve

Serve with sauce.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

826Calories

28 gProtein

15 gFat

145 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 6 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Apple	1 medium (182g)	95
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Johnson, Vt. Congregational church. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

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.

Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,104 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + appletop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together16,478 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Milk and flour 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: Yolks enrich the batter and beaten whites add air that helps it rise and set light.
Flour: Provides the starch and structure that sets the batter around the apples as it bakes.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter, helping it rise in the oven.
Milk: Hydrates the flour and makes the batter pourable, adding moisture and richness.
Apples: Soften as they bake under the batter, adding moisture and fruity sweetness.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. The whites are added last because their trapped air gives the batter its lift. Stirring them in hard or letting them sit too long deflates the foam, so the pudding bakes flatter and denser.

Swap the apple

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

Vanillafits better
Raisinfits better
Figfits better
Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, egg, flour. 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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Bird's Nest Pudding