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Dessert

Baked Apple Pudding

A baked apple dessert with custard and meringue topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Baked Apple 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 the apples

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

  2. Pare the apples and remove the cores from the stem end.

  3. Fill each cavity with 2 teaspoons of sugar, ¼ teaspoon of cinnamon, and ¼ teaspoon of butter on top.

  4. Place the apples in a baking dish and add the water.

  5. Bake the apples until tender but not broken.

Make the custard

  1. While the apples are baking, separate the egg whites and yolks.

  2. Add 1 tablespoon of cold milk to the yolks.

  3. Heat the remaining milk in a double boiler until boiling.

  4. Add the yolks to the hot milk.

  5. Cook for 1 minute after boiling.

  6. Add salt and sugar to taste.

  7. Remove from heat and let cool slightly before adding vanilla.

  8. Once the apples are done, pour the custard around them, draining excess juice if necessary.

Top and brown

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Add 1 tablespoon of sugar to the egg whites.

  3. Top each apple with 1 tablespoon of the egg white mixture.

  4. Return to the oven to brown lightly.

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.

  1. Cinnamon + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  2. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Apple + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,501 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Tart apples
Hold their shape while baking and give a tart flavour that balances the sugar.
Eggs
Thicken the custard as the yolks set and whip the whites into a light topping.
Milk
Forms the body of the custard, which thickens gently when heated with the yolks.
Sugar
Sweetens the apples, custard and meringue topping, and helps the whites hold their structure.
Cinnamon
Adds warm aroma that pairs with the baked apples.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the filling inside each apple cavity.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard after the yolks go in. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but overheating can curdle them. Keep the milk at a gentle boil, stir steadily, and cook only as long as the step states so the custard stays smooth.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Blueberryfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, sugar, cinnamon, butter, vanilla. 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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