Name: Apple Pudding
Ingredients: 4 cups sweet apples, peeled and sliced; 1 egg; ½ cup sugar; 1 teaspoon melted butter; 2 cups flour; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 1¾ cups sweet milk

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Apple Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow 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).
Pare and slice the apples to fill a dish 2 inches deep.

Make and bake

In a bowl, mix the egg, sugar, melted butter, flour, baking powder, and sweet milk to create a batter.
Pour the batter over the sliced apples in the dish.
Bake until golden brown and serve with sauce.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Apple + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,104 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,706 recipes

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Sweet apples: Provide the fruit base and moisture that cooks down beneath the batter.
Egg: Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets in the oven.
Flour: Forms the body of the batter, giving the pudding its structure.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter, helping the pudding rise and become light.
Sugar: Sweetens the batter and aids browning on the surface.
Sweet milk: Moistens the batter so the flour hydrates and the pudding sets softly.