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 Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine milk, egg, cream of tartar, and baking soda.
Add flour gradually to create a batter.
Steam
Pour the batter over quartered apples in a steaming dish.
Steam for 2 hours.
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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Milk + appletop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and flour 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
- Egg
- Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets during steaming.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the cream of tartar to produce gas that lightens the pudding.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter so it reacts with baking soda to help the pudding rise.
- Flour
- Forms the batter's main structure, setting as the pudding cooks.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour and adds moisture and tenderness to the batter.
- Apples
- Provide fruit flavour and moisture that soaks into the pudding during steaming.
The step that matters
Adding the flour gradually. Adding flour gradually lets you judge the batter's consistency and avoid lumps. Too much flour at once makes a stiff batter that rises poorly and cooks up dense.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, cream, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, cream, flour. 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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