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Dessert

Spiced Apple Pudding

A baked pudding made with bread crumbs, apples, raisins, citron, spices, milk, brandy, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Spiced Apple Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Scald the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the bread crumbs and scald for 1 to 2 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and mix in all the ingredients, adding the beaten egg whites last.

Bake

  1. Butter a pudding dish and fill it with the batter.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 40 minutes, watching to ensure it does not brown unevenly.

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.

  1. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the pudding and, once whipped whites are folded in, lighten its texture as it sets.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the hot milk and give the pudding its body and soft structure.
Milk
Provides the liquid that softens the crumbs and gives the pudding moisture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the pudding brown lightly in the oven.
Apples
Add moisture and a fresh fruity flavor that becomes tender while baking.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Adding the beaten egg whites last. Folding the egg whites in gently at the end, rather than stirring them in vigorously, keeps air bubbles in the batter so the pudding rises and stays light instead of dense.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, apple, sugar, milk, brandy, cinnamon, clove):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, apple, sugar, milk, brandy, cinnamon, clove. 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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