Why it works: Orange and apple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,230 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Beat the egg yolks and egg whites separately until fluffy.
Mix the beaten yolks with the pounded rusks.
Pour in the melted butter, orange juice, and brown sugar; mix well.
Assemble and bake
Transfer the mixture to a deep dish and fill it with pounded apples.
Roll out the pastry and create a border around the dish.
Bake in the preheated oven until golden.
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.
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Orange + appletop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,230 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Butter + appletop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + appletop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and apple 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
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the batter and add richness and a tender, custard-like texture.
- Egg whites
- Beaten until fluffy to lighten the batter and help it rise and set with structure.
- Rusks
- Pounded to crumbs that soak up liquid and give the pudding its body.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for moistness and a rich mouthfeel.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and molasses flavour, and helps the top brown during baking.
- Apples
- Form the fruit layer, adding moisture and tart-sweet flavour as they cook.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites separately until fluffy. Whites must be whipped to a light, stable foam before folding or mixing; under-beaten whites give a dense pudding, while over-beaten whites turn dry and grainy and lose their ability to lighten the batter.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, sugar, apple):
- Vanillafits better
- Pearfits better
- Figfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, sugar, apple. 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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