Name: Apple Plum Pudding
Ingredients: 5 large chopped apples; 1 cup raisins; 1 cup sugar; 1 cup sweet milk; 1 cup flour; 1 teaspoon baking powder; ½ cup butter; 2 eggs; a pinch of salt

Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Apple Plum 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

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

In a large bowl, combine the chopped apples, raisins, sugar, sweet milk, flour, baking powder, melted butter, eggs, and salt. Mix until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.

Bake and serve

Bake for 1 hour.
Serve with hard silver sauce.

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.

Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Apple + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,104 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Apple + raisintop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,920 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Flour and butter 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: Provide moisture and fruity body that keeps the pudding tender as it bakes.
Flour: Forms the structure of the batter so the pudding sets rather than staying loose.
Eggs: Bind the batter and help it set firm when baked.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender crumb.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking so the pudding rises and lightens.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the top brown during baking.

Swap the apple

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

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Coconutfits about as well
Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, sugar, milk, flour, 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.