Name: Boiled Apple Pudding
Ingredients: 6 to 8 apples; 6 to 8 medium potatoes; ½ pound butter; flour (as needed); cold water (as needed); 1 teaspoon cinnamon; 2 tablespoons brown sugar

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

Peel and quarter the apples, then place them in cold water.
Boil and mash the potatoes.
Mix the mashed potatoes with the butter, flour, and cold water to form a stiff paste.
Roll out the paste to about 1 inch thick.

Assemble

Dip a pudding cloth in boiling water and lay it over a large bowl.
Place the crust into the cloth, then add half of the apples.
Sprinkle with cinnamon and brown sugar, then add the remaining apples.
Tie the cloth tightly and place it in boiling water.

Boil

Turn the pudding frequently and boil for 3 hours.

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.

Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,598 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Potato + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,012 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked 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 fruit filling and moisture that softens as the pudding boils.
Potatoes: Mashed into the paste, they give the crust a tender, workable body.
Butter: Adds fat that enriches the crust and keeps it tender.
Flour: Combines with the mashed potato and water to form the structure of the stiff paste.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and a caramel note to the apple filling.
Cinnamon: Adds warm aroma that complements the cooked apples.

The step that matters

Tie the cloth tightly and turn the pudding frequently. A loose cloth lets water seep into the crust and filling, making the pudding soggy. Frequent turning keeps heat even so the pudding cooks through without scorching on one side.

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.

Apple Pudding256 recipes

Deep-Fried Potato Balls119 recipes

Apple Cake80 recipes

Orange Potato Bread80 recipes

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Boiled Apple Pudding