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Dessert

Baked Apple Pudding, or Custard

A baked custard made with apples, milk, eggs, sugar, butter, vanilla, salt, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Baked Apple Pudding, or Custard

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the custard

  1. In a bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, salt, and melted butter.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer the sliced apples in a greased baking dish.

  2. Pour the milk mixture over the apples.

  3. Sprinkle cinnamon on top.

  4. Bake for 30-40 minutes until set and golden brown.

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. Vanilla + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  5. Apple + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,501 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard as they cook, giving it structure and a firm, sliceable texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, providing moisture and creaminess.
Apples
Provide the fruit layer, releasing moisture and a tender texture as they bake.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the top brown as the custard bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing to a smooth, tender custard.

The step that matters

Bake until just set. Eggs thicken as their proteins coagulate with heat. Overbaking squeezes out liquid and makes the custard grainy and watery, so pull it once the centre barely wobbles and the top is golden.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Blueberryfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar, vanilla, butter, 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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