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Dessert

Apple-bread Pudding

A baked pudding made with bread crumbs, apple sauce, butter, eggs, sugar, cream, salt, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Apple-bread Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Grease a pudding dish.

  2. Mix apple sauce with butter while warm.

Assemble

  1. Layer mixed bread crumbs and apple sauce, starting with bread crumbs.

  2. Beat eggs with sugar, cream, salt, and cinnamon.

  3. Pour the mixture over the layers in the dish.

Bake

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 40 to 50 minutes.

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 + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Form the bulk of the layers and soak up the custard for a soft, set texture.
Eggs
Set the custard as they cook, giving the pudding its structure.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing to a tender crumb and flavor.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the custard, keeping the pudding tender.
Apple sauce
Provides moisture and apple flavor, sweetening and softening the layers.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture over the layers in the dish.. The custard must soak down through the bread crumb layers before baking. If it is poured too quickly or the layers are dry and compact, it pools on top and the pudding bakes unevenly, with dry pockets below and a runny surface.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, sauce, butter, egg, sugar, cream, cinnamon):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sauce, butter, egg, sugar, cream, cinnamon. 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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