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Dessert

Tapioca and Apple Pudding

A baked pudding made with tapioca, apples, milk, sugar, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,774 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Tapioca and Apple Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the tapioca

  1. Soak the tapioca in ½ cup of milk for about 1 hour.

  2. Add the remaining milk.

  3. Boil until clear.

  4. Sweeten to taste.

  5. Break and lightly beat the egg. Mix it well with the tapioca.

Assemble and bake

  1. Grease a pie dish with butter.

  2. Peel and core the apples and place them in the dish.

  3. Once cool, pour the mixture over the apples.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes.

Serve

  1. Before serving, sift a little sugar over the pudding.

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 + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

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

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Tapioca
Swells in milk as it cooks, thickening the pudding and giving it a soft, clear-set texture.
Eggs
Mixed into the cooked tapioca, it adds richness and helps the pudding set as it bakes.
Apples
Soften during baking and add fruit flavour and moisture beneath the tapioca layer.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and, sifted on top before serving, adds a light sweet finish.
Milk
Cooks with the tapioca to form the thickened base, adding moisture and creaminess.

The step that matters

Boil until clear. Tapioca must be fully cooked in the milk until the grains turn clear and soft; undercooked starch stays chalky and grainy, and the pudding will not thicken properly.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, egg, apple, 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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