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Dessert

Apple Pudding

A baked apple dessert with a sweet batter topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Apple Pudding

Why it works: Nutmeg and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Apple Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

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. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the apples

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Place the apple eighths in a pudding dish and add hot water to a depth of ½ inch.

  3. Sprinkle sugar, salt, nutmeg, and butter over the apples.

  4. Simmer the apples on the stove while preparing the batter.

Make and bake the pudding

  1. In a bowl, mix ¾ cup flour, ½ cup sugar, softened butter, baking powder, egg, and cold water until smooth.

  2. Pour the batter over the hot apples.

  3. Bake in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes or until golden.

Serve

  1. Serve warm with cream and sugar.

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.

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.

  1. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Butter and flour 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

Tart apples
Provide the fruit base and tartness that balances the sweet batter.
All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the batter as it bakes and sets.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps it set into a tender, cohesive crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the batter rises and becomes light.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that contributes to a tender texture and flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the apples and batter and helps the top brown as it bakes.

The step that matters

Pour the batter over the hot apples. The apples should be hot and simmering when the batter goes on, so the batter starts cooking on contact and the bottom does not turn gummy or dense while the fruit releases its juices.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, nutmeg, butter, flour, egg):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, nutmeg, butter, flour, egg. 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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