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Apple Pudding

A baked apple custard with butter, sugar, nutmeg, eggs, and biscuit dough.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Apple Pudding

Why it works: Nutmeg and biscuit match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 368 recipes. Both carry maltol, which smells caramel, sweet. The science ↓

Apple Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apples

  1. Mash the steamed apples through a colander.

  2. While the apples are hot, mix in the butter.

Make the filling

  1. Add the sugar and grated nutmeg, then stir in the beaten eggs.

Bake and serve

  1. Prepare a rich baking powder biscuit dough and line a baking dish with it.

  2. Pour the apple custard mixture into the lined dish and bake until the custard is firm.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Nutmeg + biscuittop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together368 recipes

    Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).

  2. Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

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

  4. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + biscuittop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,009 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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 fruity flavour of the pudding filling.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the apples.
Eggs
Bind the filling and set when baked, giving the custard its firm texture.
Baking powder biscuit dough
Forms the base crust that holds the custard as it bakes.

The step that matters

Bake until the custard is firm. Eggs set as they heat, so underbaking leaves the filling runny and soggy, while overbaking can make it dry and rubbery. Check that the centre is set before removing the dish.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, nutmeg, egg, biscuit):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, nutmeg, egg, biscuit. 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.

More apple pudding recipes

Baked 128Boiled 64Steamed 30Sago 26Swiss 24Boston 17 See all 461 →

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