Why it works: Apple and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,478 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Apple Mould
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Peel and quarter the apples, then slice them very thin across the core.
Assemble and bake
In a quart-sized earthen bowl, layer the sliced apples with white sugar until the bowl is filled.
Place a dish on top of the bowl and bake for 2 hours.
Cool and serve
Allow to cool, then turn out onto a plate to serve.
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.
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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
- Juicy apples
- Provide the bulk of the pudding and, as they soften, its moist, tender body.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the apples and draws out their juices during the long, slow bake.
The step that matters
Baking for 2 hours at a low temperature. Slow baking softens the thin apple slices fully and lets them release and concentrate their juices. Too hot or too short a bake can leave the slices firm or the pudding watery when turned out.
“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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