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.
Assemble
Layer the sliced apples and fine bread crumbs in a baking dish.
Add a little water to the dish.
Mix some fine bread crumbs with butter and sprinkle on top.
Bake and serve
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until cooked through.
Serve with hard sauce.
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.
-
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Apple + breadtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,790 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
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
- Apples
- Soften during baking and provide the main fruit body and moisture of the pudding.
- Stale bread crumbs
- Absorb juices and give the pudding a soft, cohesive structure.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps the buttered crumb topping brown as it bakes.
The step that matters
Bake until cooked through. Apples must soften fully and the crumbs must set, so the pudding is not watery or raw in the centre. Judge doneness by the apples being tender when pierced, not by the time alone.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter):
- Figfits about as well
- Applethe original
- Coconutfits about as well
- Peachfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, 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.
More apple pudding recipes
You might also like
Apple Bread Pudding21 recipes
Bread Pudding153 recipes
Soft Ginger Bread85 recipes
Apple Cake80 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.