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 ↓
Dutch Apple Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the dough
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, mix the salt, baking soda, and cream of tartar with the flour, then sift.
Beat the egg lightly and add the milk.
Rub the butter into the flour mixture.
Pour the milk and egg mixture into the flour and mix quickly and thoroughly.
Spread the dough about ¼ inch deep in a buttered pan.
Top and bake
Peel, core, and cut the apples into eighths, then arrange them in rows on the dough.
Sprinkle the apples with sugar.
Bake for about 25 minutes.
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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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + appletop 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).
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
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the dough once mixed with liquid.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the dough so it reacts with baking soda to help it rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the dough to produce gas that lightens the pudding.
- Egg
- Binds the dough and adds richness and structure as it sets.
- Milk
- Adds moisture to the dough, helping it bake tender.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the dough and gives a rich flavor.
- Apples
- Release moisture and sweetness as they bake, softening into the dough.
The step that matters
Mix the milk and egg into the flour quickly and thoroughly. Once liquid meets the acid and baking soda, gas begins forming right away. Mixing quickly keeps that gas in the batter so the pudding rises well instead of going flat.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, cream, egg, milk, butter, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, cream, egg, milk, butter, sugar. 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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