Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Apple 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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Grease a pudding dish.
Layer and bake
Layer half of the grated bread crumbs in the dish, then add bits of butter on top of the crumbs.
Layer half of the sliced apples over the crumbs.
Sprinkle with sugar and nutmeg.
Repeat the layers until the dish is full.
Pour the cold water over the entire dish.
Bake for 30 minutes.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,790 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Apple + breadtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,790 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,997 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cooking apples
- Provide the main body and tart fruit flavor of the pudding as they soften while baking.
- Grated bread crumbs
- Absorb liquid and butter, forming a soft, layered structure between the apples.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture, and helps the crumbs brown as it melts.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the top of the pudding brown.
- Cold water
- Moistens the crumbs so they soften and bind with the apples as the pudding bakes.
The step that matters
Pouring the cold water over the dish. The water must soak through the crumb and apple layers during baking; if the crumbs stay dry, the pudding bakes up dense and dry rather than moist and soft.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, bread, butter, sugar):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegthe original
- Clovefits about as well
- Gingerfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, bread, butter, 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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