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 ↓
Amber Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the apples
Peel and core the apples, then slice them.
In a saucepan, combine the apples, sugar, and butter.
Wash the lemon. Peel the lemon thinly.
Squeeze the juice into the saucepan. Add the peel to the saucepan.
Cook on medium heat until the apples are tender, about 45 minutes.
Make the filling
Set a sieve over a large bowl.
Pour the cooked apples into the sieve.
Press the apples through with a wooden spoon.
Stir the yolks of the eggs into the apple mixture.
Bake and serve
Line a pie dish with puff pastry.
Pour the apple mixture into the pie dish.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.
Whip the egg whites until stiff. Spread the whipped whites over the pudding.
Return to the oven until the topping is light brown.
Serve the pudding.
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 + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,551 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Apples
- Break down into a soft purée that forms the body of the pudding.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the apples and helps them caramelise slightly as they cook.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the cooked apple mixture.
- Eggs
- Yolks enrich and set the filling; whipped whites lighten the topping and help it brown.
- Lemon
- Juice and peel add acidity and fresh aroma that balance the sweetness.
The step that matters
Pressing the cooked apples through the sieve. Pushing the apples through removes skins and lumps, giving a smooth purée. Cooking them until fully tender first makes this easier and keeps the filling silky.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, butter, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Orangefits better
- Raspberryfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, butter, 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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