Why it works: Butter and bread 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 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the apple mixture
Stew the apples until warm.
Stir in butter and sugar to taste.
Let the mixture cool.
Stir in the beaten eggs and lemon juice or extract.
Prepare the crumbs
In a frying pan, heat the butter until hot.
Add the bread crumbs.
Stir until browned.
Bake and serve
Sprinkle some crumbs on the bottom and sides of a well-buttered pudding mold.
Fill the mold with the apple mixture.
Sprinkle the remaining crumbs on top.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.
Turn out of the mold.
Serve with cream sauce or cream and sugar.
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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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Apple + breadtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,790 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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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).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Apples
- Provide the main body and tart fruit flavor of the pudding.
- Eggs
- Bind the apple mixture and help it set into a firm, sliceable pudding.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb moisture and form a lightly browned, crisp coating on the pudding.
- Butter
- Adds richness and flavor to the apples and browned crumbs.
The step that matters
Stir in the beaten eggs after the apple mixture has cooled. Adding eggs to very hot mixture can scramble them and leave lumps. Cooling first lets the eggs blend smoothly and set evenly during baking.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, lemon, bread):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Raspberryfits about as well
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, lemon, bread. 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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