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Dessert

Victoria Pudding

A baked apple pudding with egg yolks, butter, flour, and sugar, topped with a powdered sugar frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Victoria 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 the filling

  1. Strain the stewed apples through a sieve.

  2. In a bowl, mix the strained apples with the egg yolks, butter, flour, and sugar to taste.

  3. Line a baking dish with pastry and pour the apple mixture into it.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 minutes.

  2. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth and gradually stir in the powdered sugar.

  3. Spread the frosting over the pudding and return it to the oven for a few minutes to brown.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Egg yolks
Enrich the apple filling and help it set as it bakes.
Egg whites
Whipped into a stiff froth to form a light meringue-style topping.
Stewed apples
Provide the main fruit body and moisture of the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender texture to the filling.
Flour
Thickens the apple mixture so it holds its shape when baked.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the meringue topping and helps it stay smooth and stable.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites to a stiff froth. Egg whites must be whipped until they hold stiff peaks, because trapped air gives the topping its lift and structure. Adding powdered sugar gradually keeps the foam stable, and the topping then browns in the oven.

Swap the apple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, flour, sugar. 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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