Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
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
Boil 1 quart of water.
Add the sliced apples and cook until tender.
Add the butter and sugar to the apples and cook for a short time.
Make the dough
In a bowl, mix the flour, salt, butter, baking powder, and milk to form a soft dough.
Flour your hands and press the dough out thin.
Bake and serve
Place the dough on top of the apple sauce.
Let it boil briefly.
Transfer to the oven.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until the crust is done.
Serve with cream.
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 + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Apple + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Walnut + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Apples
- Cook down into a tender, moist sauce that forms the base of the pudding.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the soft dough together as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender texture in both the apples and the dough.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the apple sauce and helps the crust brown during baking.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the dough, helping it rise and become light.
- Milk
- Adds moisture to the dough, hydrating the flour for a soft crust.
The step that matters
Press the dough out thin. A thin layer of dough cooks through evenly on the hot apple sauce and rises into a light crust instead of a dense, doughy layer.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, butter, sugar, flour, milk):
- Almondfits better
- Chestnutfits better
- Hazelnutfits better
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, butter, sugar, flour, milk. 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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