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Dessert

Apple and Tapioca Pudding

A baked pudding of apples and tapioca, sweetened with sugar and spiced with cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,774 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Apple and Tapioca Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the tapioca

  1. Cover the tapioca with 1½ cups of tepid water.

  2. Let it sit in a warm place for 5 hours, stirring occasionally.

Prepare the apples

  1. Pack the apples in a pudding dish.

  2. Place a pinch of lemon peel in each apple.

  3. Add 1 cup of warm water.

  4. Cover the dish closely.

  5. Cook in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C), turning the apples as they cook.

  6. When the apples are soft, drain off the water.

  7. Fill the center of each apple with sugar.

  8. Place a clove in each apple.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the tapioca over the apples.

  2. Cover the dish.

  3. Bake for 1 hour.

  4. Serve warm with hard 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.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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

Tapioca
Swells in warm water to form a thick, soft, translucent pudding body.
Apples
Soften while baking and supply the fruit flavor and the main body of the dish.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the apple flavor come through.

The step that matters

Let the tapioca soak fully. Tapioca pearls must hydrate in warm water for a long soak to become tender and evenly thickened. If they are under-soaked, the finished pudding will have hard, chalky centers.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Quincefits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, 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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