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Dessert

Apple Pudding

A baked apple pudding with a sweet cinnamon sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Apple Pudding

Why it works: Cinnamon and apple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Apple 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter and bake

  1. In a bowl, mix sugar, lard, egg, milk, flour, baking powder, and cinnamon.

  2. Slice the apples and place them in a baking dish.

  3. Pour the batter over the apples.

  4. Bake for 1 hour.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. For the sauce, combine boiling water, sugar, butter, corn starch, and cinnamon in a saucepan until thickened.

  2. Serve the pudding warm with the sauce.

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.

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.

  1. Cinnamon + appletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Flour
Provides the main structure that sets the batter around the apples as it bakes.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps it set into a tender, cohesive crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the pudding rises and becomes light.
Apples
Add moisture and fruity flavour as they soften under the batter.
Corn starch
Thickens the sauce as it heats, giving it a smooth, glossy body.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce. Corn starch must be heated with the liquid until it thickens; if it is undercooked, the sauce stays thin and can taste starchy. Stirring while it heats helps prevent lumps.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, milk, flour, cinnamon, sauce, 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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