Skip to main content
Dessert

Marlborough Pudding

A baked apple custard encased in puff pastry, flavored with lemon zest and juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Marlborough Pudding

Why it works: Apple and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,551 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Marlborough Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Stew and strain the apples.

  3. Stir the butter into the strained apples.

  4. Add the lemon zest and juice, and mix well.

Assemble and bake

  1. Beat the eggs and sugar together until combined.

  2. Stir the egg mixture into the apple mixture until well combined.

  3. Line deep plates with puff pastry and create a thick edge.

  4. Pour the apple mixture into the lined plates.

  5. Bake in the preheated oven until set and golden.

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. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 tart fruit flavour that forms the pudding's body.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky texture to the apple filling.
Eggs
Set during baking to bind the filling into a custard-like texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps the pastry and filling brown.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the apples and eggs.
Puff pastry
Forms a crisp, buttery case that holds the filling while baking.

The step that matters

Bake until set and golden. Eggs thicken as their proteins coagulate with heat. Underbaking leaves the filling runny, while overbaking can make it curdle or dry out, so check for a firm centre and a golden pastry edge.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, lemon, egg, 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.

You might also like

Apple PuddingApple Pudding256 recipesLemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipes