Why it works: Corn and nutmeg work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 563 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Apple Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Place the sliced apples in a pudding dish and sprinkle with ½ cup sugar and a small piece of butter.
In a bowl, dissolve 3 tablespoons of corn starch in a little cold water.
Make the sauce
Add the dissolved corn starch to 1 quart of boiling water along with a little salt and ½ cup sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil, then pour it over the apples.
Bake and serve
Grate nutmeg over the top.
Bake in the oven until the apples are tender.
Serve cold with cream or milk.
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.
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Corn + nutmegtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together563 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,790 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Butter + corntop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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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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Apple + corntop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together330 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
- Sour apples
- Provide the main body and tart flavour of the pudding as they soften in the oven.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the boiling liquid into a smooth sauce that sets as it cools.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the apples and the sauce, balancing the tartness of the fruit.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat to the apples as they bake.
The step that matters
Pouring the boiling starch mixture over the apples. The starch must be fully boiled to thicken properly; cornstarch only thickens once it reaches a boil and gelatinises, so a mixture that is not brought fully to a boil will stay thin.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, corn, nutmeg):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, corn, nutmeg. 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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