Name: Boiled Apple Pudding
Ingredients: 6 to 8 medium potatoes, boiled and mashed; ½ pound butter; Flour, as needed; Cold water, as needed; 6 medium apples, peeled and quartered; 1 teaspoon ground 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 the dough

Mash the boiled potatoes and mix in the butter until well combined.
Add flour and cold water to the potato mixture to form a stiff paste.
Roll out the dough to about 1 inch thick.

Assemble the pudding

Peel and quarter the apples, then place them in cold water.
Dip a pudding cloth in boiling water and lay it over a large bowl.
Place the dough into the cloth-lined bowl.
Remove the apples from the cold water and layer half of them in the crust.
Sprinkle with cinnamon and brown sugar, then add the remaining apples.
Tie the cloth tightly and place the pudding 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

Potatoes: Mashed into the dough to give it a soft, pliable body.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, making the dough tender and flavourful.
Flour: Provides structure, binding the mashed potato into a dough that holds its shape.
Apples: Supply moisture and tart fruit flavour that cooks down inside the crust.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and a caramel note to the cooked apples.

The step that matters

Turn the pudding frequently and boil for 3 hours. Turning keeps the pudding evenly heated and prevents one side from scorching or cooking unevenly. Boiling must be maintained for the full time so the dough cooks through and the wrapping stays sealed.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, apple, cinnamon, sugar):

Sweet potatofits better
Arrowrootfits better
Parsnipfits better
Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, apple, 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