Why it works: Apple and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,706 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Apple Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Fill one dish with the sliced apples and add cold water.
Cover the apples with the tender crust.
Butter the second dish and place it over the first dish with the pudding.
Bake and serve
Bake in the hot oven for about 45 minutes.
Serve with sugar and butter or sweetened rich 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.
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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Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Apples
- Provide the main filling, softening as they bake and releasing moisture into the pudding.
- Tender crust
- Encloses the apples so they steam in the dish, keeping the filling moist while it cooks.
- Cold water
- Adds moisture to the apples so they steam and cook through in the covered dish.
The step that matters
Covering the apples with the crust before baking. The crust must seal the filling so steam stays trapped and the apples cook through rather than drying out. An uneven seal lets moisture escape and leaves the apples underdone or dry.
“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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