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Dessert

Apple-sago Pudding

A pudding made with sago, apples, sugar, and spices, baked and served with cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Apple-sago Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sago

  1. Combine 1 cup sago with 1 quart cold water in a basin and heat gradually.

  2. Add a pinch of salt and hot water if the mixture seems too dry.

Assemble and bake

  1. Pare and core the apples, fill the holes with sugar, and season with nutmeg and cinnamon.

  2. Place the apples in a pudding dish and add 1 cup of water.

  3. Bake until partly done.

  4. Remove the dish and pour the cooked sago over the apples.

  5. Return to the oven and bake until well done.

  6. Serve with sugar and cream.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Sugar and cinnamon 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

Sago
Thickens into a soft, set layer over the apples as it cooks.
Apples
Provide tart fruit flavour and a soft, cooked base under the sago.
Sugar
Sweetens the apples and balances their tartness.
Cream
Adds richness and a cooling contrast to the warm pudding.

The step that matters

Adding the sago to the cooked apples. Sago must be fully cooked and thick before it is poured over the apples, since starch that is underheated stays gluey and does not set properly in the final bake.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, cream):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, 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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