Why it works: Sugar and gelatin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,778 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Cold Apple Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the components
Stew the apples with 3 ounces of sugar and 2 tablespoons of water until tender.
Pass the cooked apples through a sieve to yield ½ pound of apple puree.
Pound and sift the macaroons.
Blanch, dry, and finely chop the nuts.
Make the custard
Make a custard by heating the milk, egg yolks, and 2 ounces of sugar until thickened.
Dissolve ¼ ounce of gelatin and add it to the custard along with the macaroons.
Dissolve the remaining ¼ ounce of gelatin and mix it into the apple puree.
Layer and set
Wet the bottom of a mold with a little dissolved gelatin and sprinkle with chopped nuts.
Pour a layer of custard into the mold.
Let the custard layer set until the gelatin is nearly set.
Add a layer of apple puree.
Add a layer of custard.
Repeat layers of apple puree and custard until the mold is filled.
Once firm, turn out the pudding and serve.
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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Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,778 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Apple + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Apple + pistachiotop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together83 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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
- Sour apples
- Provide the main body and tart flavour of the puree layers.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard and add richness through their proteins and fat.
- Gelatin
- Sets the custard and apple puree so the layers hold their shape when turned out.
- Macaroons
- Add almond-like flavour and body to the custard layers.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard, adding creaminess.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the apples and custard and balances the tartness of the fruit.
The step that matters
Let the custard layer set until the gelatin is nearly set. If the custard is poured on top before the gelatin has partly set, the layers will mix and blur. Waiting lets each layer hold its shape while keeping the layers able to bond.
Swap the pistachio
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, milk, egg, gelatin):
- Chestnutfits better
- Almondfits better
- Pecansfits about as well
- Pistachiothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, milk, egg, gelatin. 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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