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Dessert

Apple Pudding

A baked apple dessert with jelly, macaroons, milk, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Apple Pudding

Why it works: Milk and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓

Apple Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the apples

  1. Pare and core the apples.

  2. Place them in a pudding dish half filled with water.

  3. Cover the dish.

  4. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until the apples are tender.

  5. Drain the water.

  6. Fill each apple with jelly.

  7. Season with your preferred spices.

  8. Let the apples cool.

Make the custard

  1. Scald the milk.

  2. Stir in the pounded macaroons, salt, corn-starch, and sugar.

  3. Boil the mixture for 1-2 minutes.

  4. Let it cool.

  5. Beat in the egg whites until stiff.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture over the apples.

  2. Bake for 20-30 minutes.

  3. Serve with cream.

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. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  2. Apple + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  3. Apple + corntop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together330 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

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

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Apples
Tender flesh becomes the soft base that the custard topping sits on.
Macaroons
Crumbs thicken the milk mixture and add body and a almond-like sweetness.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they lighten the topping and help it set and puff in the oven.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that binds the macaroon crumbs.
Corn-starch
Thickens the milk mixture so it holds its shape after boiling.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites until stiff. Stiff whites trap air and hold it through baking, so the topping rises and sets light. Under-beaten whites stay runny and sink, while over-beaten whites turn grainy and dry.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, corn, sugar, egg. 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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