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Dessert

Baked Apple Pudding

A baked dessert of apples layered with sugar, cloves, and lemon, topped with a flaky crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,774 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. 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

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

  2. Line a baking dish that is three to four inches deep with flaky pie crust.

  3. Pare and quarter the apples to fill the dish.

Assemble

  1. Place a layer of apples in the dish and sprinkle liberally with sugar.

  2. Add another layer of apples and sugar until the dish is full.

  3. Flavor the apples with whole cloves and minced lemon peel or lemon essence.

  4. Cover the dish with a thick crust.

Bake

  1. Bake in the oven for one and a half hours until the crust is soft and flaky.

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. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 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

Flaky pie crust
Forms the lining and top cover that enclose the fruit while it bakes.
Apples
Provide the bulk of the filling, softening as they bake into a tender layer.
Sugar
Sweetens the apples and draws out juices that form a syrup in the dish.
Whole cloves
Add a warm, spiced aroma to the apples during baking.
Lemon peel or lemon essence
Adds bright citrus aroma that balances the sweetness of the apples and sugar.

The step that matters

Covering the dish with a thick crust. A thick top crust seals in steam so the apples cook through and soften, while the crust stays intact. A gap or thin crust lets juices escape and the filling can dry or scorch.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, clove):

  1. Quincefits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, clove. 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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