Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Apple Batter Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a medium oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the apples
Pare, core, and stew the apples until soft.
Sweeten and flavor the apples with sugar and spices to taste.
Partly fill a pudding dish with the hot prepared apples.
Make and bake the batter
In a bowl, beat the egg and mix in the sugar, milk, flour, baking powder, and melted butter.
Pour the batter over the apples in the dish.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 15 minutes.
Serve
Serve hot with sauce or cream.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Apple + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Provide the fruit base and moisture that softens during stewing and baking.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets in the oven.
- Flour
- Forms the body of the batter that bakes into a soft, cake-like crumb.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping it rise and lighten as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds richness and flavor to the batter and helps it bake tender.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the batter and apples and contributes to browning at the surface.
The step that matters
Pouring the batter over the hot apples. The apples should be hot when the batter goes on, so the base is already cooked and the batter begins setting on contact. Bake promptly after assembling, because baking powder starts releasing gas as soon as it is wet, and a delay weakens the rise.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, milk, flour, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, milk, flour, butter. 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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