Name: Apple Batter Pudding
Ingredients: 2 eggs; 4 heaped tablespoons of flour; 1 pinch of salt; 1 breakfast cup of milk; castor sugar; apples

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 ↓

Apple Batter Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Make a light batter by whisking together the eggs, flour, milk, and a pinch of salt.
Peel and slice the apples, then dip them in castor sugar.

Assemble and cook

Almost fill a greased bowl with the sugared apples.
Pour the batter over the apples.
Cover the bowl with greased paper and boil for 1½ hours, or longer if steamed.

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.

Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,104 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 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).

Flour and milk 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: Bind the batter and help it set into a light, custard-like pudding.
Flour: Forms the body of the batter so it sets around the apples.
Milk: Thins the batter to a pourable consistency and adds moisture.
Apples: Provide the fruit and moisture that cook through in the pudding.
Castor sugar: Sweetens the apples and adds a little flavour to the fruit.

The step that matters

Cover the bowl with greased paper and boil for 1½ hours. Covering keeps steam in so the batter cooks evenly through. Boiling too hard or letting water in can make the pudding waterlogged or uneven, so the cook must keep the water at a steady simmer and check the time.