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Dessert

Apple Tapioca Pudding

A baked pudding of tapioca and apples flavored with nutmeg and wine, served cold with cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,207 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Apple Tapioca Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tapioca

  1. Combine tapioca and cold water in a pot.

  2. Cook on the stove, stirring to prevent burning, until clear.

  3. Remove from heat and sweeten with nutmeg and wine.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the tapioca mixture into a deep dish with the prepared apples.

  2. Bake until the apples are tender.

  3. Serve cold with cream.

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.

  1. Apple + winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,207 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Wine + creamtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,887 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Nutmeg + winetop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,356 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Tapioca
Starch that swells in hot water and thickens the mixture as it cooks and sets.
Apples
Provide the fruit base, softening during baking to become tender and moist.
Wine
Adds acidity and aroma that balance the sweetness of the pudding.
Nutmeg
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavour to the pudding.

The step that matters

Stirring the tapioca while it cooks. Tapioca starch swells and thickens as it heats, but it settles and scorches on the bottom of the pot easily. Constant stirring keeps heat even and the starch fully cooked until the mixture turns clear.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (nutmeg, wine, cream):

  1. Lemonfits about as well
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Vanillafits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against nutmeg, wine, cream. 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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