Name: Swiss Apple Pudding
Ingredients: Rich paste for lining the dish; Sliced apples (enough to fill the dish); Sugar (to sprinkle between layers); Water (1-2 tablespoons)

Why it works: Apple and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,478 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Swiss Apple Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Rich paste for lining the dish
Sliced apples (enough to fill the dish)
Sugar (to sprinkle between layers)
Water (1-2 tablespoons)

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

Line a deep dish with rich paste.
Layer sliced apples in the dish, sprinkling sugar between each layer until full.

Assemble and bake

Cover the top with crust, leaving a large opening in the center.
Pour in 1-2 tablespoons of water.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.

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.

Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together16,478 recipes

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

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

Sliced apples: Form the filling that softens and becomes tender during baking.
Sugar: Sweetens the apples and draws out juices that flavour the filling.
Rich paste: Forms a sturdy, flaky crust that holds the filling in the dish.

“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.