Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Apple Batter 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).
Place the sliced apples in a buttered pudding dish and sprinkle with sugar.
Make the batter
Beat the eggs until foamy.
Gradually add the flour while beating vigorously, then mix in the salt.
Stir in enough milk to achieve a thick cream consistency and beat well.
Bake and serve
Pour the batter over the apples and bake until done.
Serve warm with cream or milk.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Apple + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
-
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Cooking apples
- Provide the fruit base and moisture that cooks down beneath the batter.
- Eggs
- Beaten eggs add structure and help the batter set as it bakes.
- Flour
- Gives the batter body so it bakes into a thick, cohesive pudding.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the cooked apples taste rounded and mellow.
- Milk
- Thins the batter to a thick cream consistency and adds moisture and richness.
The step that matters
Beat the eggs and flour thoroughly into the batter. Adding flour gradually while beating vigorously keeps it smooth and prevents lumps, so the batter bakes evenly around the apples.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, flour, milk, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, flour, milk, 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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