Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓
Boiled Apple-pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the filling
Soak the apples in cold water.
Drain the apples and mix them with cinnamon and brown sugar, then place them in the crust.
Make the crust
Mash the potatoes and mix in the butter.
Add flour and enough cold water to form a stiff pastry, then roll it out to about 1 inch thick.
Dip a large pudding cloth in boiling water and spread it inside a bowl, leaving the edges hanging over.
Dredge the cloth with flour and spread the pastry over it.
Assemble and boil
Draw the pastry up around the apples, wetting the edges to seal them, and tie the cloth tightly.
Place the pudding in a large pot of boiling water and boil for 3 hours, keeping it covered.
Remove the cloth and serve with pudding sauce.
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 + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,598 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Potato + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,012 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Apples
- Provide the bulk of the filling and a fruity, tart flavor that balances the sweetness.
- Potatoes
- Add starch and moisture to make a tender, pliable pastry that holds the filling.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, making the pastry tender and flavorful.
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the stiff pastry that encloses the apples.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and a caramel note to the apple filling.
The step that matters
Sealing the pastry around the apples. Wetting the edges and tying the cloth tightly keeps the filling enclosed. If the seal fails, water enters the pudding and the filling and crust become soggy during the long boil.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, butter, flour, cinnamon, sugar):
- Sweet potatofits better
- Arrowrootfits better
- Parsnipfits better
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, butter, flour, cinnamon, sugar. 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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