Name: Swbbt Apple Pudding
Ingredients: 2 quarts Tallman sweet apples, sliced thin with skin on; Sweet milk, enough to fill the basin; 2 cups fine cornmeal; ¼ teaspoon salt; 2 cups molasses; Cold milk, as needed

Why it works: Apple and milk 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 ↓

Swbbt Apple Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

2 quarts Tallman sweet apples, sliced thin with skin on
Sweet milk, enough to fill the basin
2 cups fine cornmeal
¼ teaspoon salt
2 cups molasses
Cold milk, as needed

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).
Fill a 2-quart basin with sliced apples and cover with sweet milk.

Make the pudding

Bring to a boil, then stir in the cornmeal, salt, and molasses.
Thin the mixture with cold milk until it can fill a large pudding pan.

Bake and serve

Bake for about 6 hours.
Serve warm with cream or butter.

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.

Apple + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,104 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7,243 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Apple + molassestop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together970 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Tallman sweet apples: Provide fruit, moisture, and mild sweetness as they soften during baking.
Fine cornmeal: Thickens as it heats and gives the pudding its set and body.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, deep flavor, and a darker color as it bakes.
Sweet milk: Adds moisture and richness, softening the cornmeal as the pudding cooks.

The step that matters

Stir the cornmeal into the boiling liquid. Cornmeal starch swells and thickens as it heats. Stirring while adding it keeps the grains from clumping into lumps and gives the pudding an even, smooth body.

Swap the apple

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

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Raisinfits better
Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, molasses. 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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Swbbt Apple Pudding