Name: Malvern Apple Pudding
Ingredients: 1 pound finely grated bread crumbs; 1 pound russet apples, peeled, cored, and chopped small; 4 ounces moist sugar; 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel or rind of half a lemon, minced; 4 eggs, well beaten; 1.5 pounds clean dry currants; ⅓ cup brandy

Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Malvern Apple Pudding

Ingredients

1 pound finely grated bread crumbs
1 pound russet apples, peeled, cored, and chopped small
4 ounces moist sugar
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel or rind of half a lemon, minced
4 eggs, well beaten
1.5 pounds clean dry currants
⅓ cup brandy

Directions

Mix the batter

In a bowl, combine the bread crumbs and chopped apples.
Add the sugar, lemon peel, and beaten eggs.
Mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon.
Gradually fold in the currants and brandy while beating the mixture.

Boil

Place the mixture in a floured cloth, tie it tightly, leaving no space for swelling.
Boil for 4 hours.

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.

Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Apple + brandytop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,291 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Apple + curranttop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,918 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Bread + appletop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,790 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs: Provide the main body and structure that holds the pudding together.
Apples: Add moisture and a soft, tender texture as they cook down.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and help it set firm as it cooks.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps deepen the flavour.
Currants: Add chewy bursts of sweetness throughout the pudding.
Brandy: Adds a warm, aromatic flavour to the pudding.

The step that matters

Tying the cloth tightly. The mixture swells as it cooks, so the cloth must be tied firmly with no room to expand. This keeps the pudding compact and stops it from loosening or leaking as it boils.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, apple, sugar, egg, currant, brandy):

Figfits better
Apricotfits better
Pearfits better
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, apple, sugar, egg, currant, brandy. 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.

Apple Bread Pudding21 recipes

Apple Pudding256 recipes

Lemon Cake228 recipes

Bread Pudding153 recipes

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Malvern Apple Pudding