Why it works: Apple and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 777 recipes. Both carry gamma-undecalactone, which smells peach, sweet. The science ↓
Frozen Apple Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the apple base
Stew the apples until tender.
Mix the apples with the orange rind, apricot jam, and sugar.
Mash the mixture through a coarse sieve and freeze.
Simmer the raisins in a little sugar and water for a few minutes, then drain.
Freeze and fold in the add-ins
Add the raisins, shredded almonds, cherries, and citron to the apples when they are partly frozen.
Add the curacao and maraschino when the mixture is quite frozen.
When the crank turns very hard, add the whipped cream.
Turn a little longer, then fill a mold as described in General Directions for Freezing Ice-Creams.
Serve
When ready, turn out of the mold and serve with a sauce of whipped 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.
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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Apple + apricottop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together777 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-undecalactone (peach, sweet).
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Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,781 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
-
Apricot + almondtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together852 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
-
Orange + almondtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,125 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Apricot + orangetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together703 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Apples
- Provide the bulk and body of the pudding once stewed and mashed.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and softens the texture of the frozen mixture.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a light, airy texture when whipped into the frozen base.
- Apricot jam
- Adds fruity sweetness and flavour to the apple base.
- Raisins
- Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.
The step that matters
Add the curacao and maraschino when the mixture is quite frozen. Alcohol lowers the freezing point, so adding it too early keeps the mixture from setting firmly. Waiting until it is quite frozen lets the pudding hold its shape while still carrying the liqueur flavour.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, apricot, sugar, orange, almond, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Peachfits better
- Figfits better
- Raisinthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, apricot, sugar, orange, almond, cream. 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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