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Dessert

Apple Amber Pudding

A baked apple pudding with butter, sugar, lemon, eggs, and pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,551 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Apple Amber Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the apple filling

  1. Wash the apples (do not peel or core) and cut them into small pieces.

  2. Combine the apples, butter, sugar, lemon rind, and juice in a saucepan.

  3. Cook until tender.

  4. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve to remove the peel and seeds.

  5. Beat the egg yolks into the apple mixture.

Bake and top

  1. Pour the mixture into a pie dish lined with pastry.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until set.

  3. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks with 2 teaspoons of sugar.

  4. Spread the beaten egg whites on top of the pudding.

  5. Return to a cool oven (300°F / 150°C) until the egg whites are set.

  6. Serve hot or cold.

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 + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide the main body and tart flavour of the pudding filling.
Eggs
Egg yolks thicken the filling and whites form a light, set meringue topping.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the filling.
Moist sugar
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the apple filling.

The step that matters

Passing the apple mixture through a fine sieve. Sieving removes peel and seeds so the filling becomes smooth. Cooking the apples until fully tender first makes them pass through easily, and the mixture should be cool enough that the yolks can be beaten in without scrambling.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, lemon, 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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