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Dessert

Rich Baked Apple Pudding

A baked dessert of stewed apples, sugar, lemon rind, eggs, and butter, topped with puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,551 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Rich Baked 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 the apples

  1. Peel, core, and chop the apples.

  2. Place them in a saucepan with just enough water to prevent burning and stew until reduced to a pulp.

  3. Weigh the pulp.

Make the filling

  1. For every ½ pound of pulp, add ½ pound of sifted sugar, grated lemon rind, and 6 well-beaten eggs.

  2. Beat the ingredients together until well combined.

  3. Melt the butter and stir it into the mixture.

Bake

  1. Line a baking dish with puff pastry.

  2. Pour the apple mixture into the dish.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes.

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. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Apple pulp
Provides the main body and moisture of the pudding filling.
Eggs
Bind the filling and set as it bakes, giving it a firm, custard-like structure.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving a tender texture and smooth mouthfeel.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances the tartness of the apples.
Lemon rind
Adds bright, fragrant citrus aroma that lifts the apple flavor.
Puff pastry
Forms a crisp, flaky base that contrasts with the soft filling.

The step that matters

Weigh the pulp. The sugar and eggs are scaled to each half pound of pulp, so the pulp must be measured accurately. An incorrect weight throws off the ratio of sweetness, binding, and moisture, changing how the pudding sets.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Applethe original

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