Name: Baked Apple and Almond Pudding
Ingredients: ¼ pound sweet almonds; ¼ pound loaf sugar; 6 large eggs, separated; 1 lemon, grated peel and juice; 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour; stewed apples (for the base)

Why it works: Almond and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Baked Apple and Almond Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the almond mixture

Pound the almonds and sugar together until well combined.
Add the beaten yolks of the eggs, lemon peel, lemon juice, and flour. Mix well.
Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks and gently fold them into the almond mixture.

Bake

Pour the mixture over a thick layer of prepared stewed apples in a baking dish.
Bake until the top is golden brown.

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.

Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,673 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,655 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Lemon + appletop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,551 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Eggs: Yolks enrich and bind the custard, while whipped whites lighten the pudding and help it rise.
Sweet almonds: Ground almonds give the pudding a moist, tender body and a nutty flavour.
Loaf sugar: Sweetens the pudding and helps the top brown as it bakes.
Lemon: Peel adds aroma and juice adds brightness that balances the sweetness.
All-purpose flour: Adds a little structure so the almond mixture holds together after baking.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites gently. Whipped whites trap air that lightens the pudding; stirring or deflating them vigorously knocks out that air, leaving a denser result.

Swap the apple

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

Raisinfits better
Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, sugar, egg, lemon, flour. 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

Lemon Cake228 recipes

Lemon Ice147 recipes

Lemon Sherbet103 recipes

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Baked Apple and Almond Pudding