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 ↓
Apple Pudding Boiled
Ingredients
Directions
Make the suet dough
Chop the beef suet very fine.
Mix the suet, flour, and salt together with your hands.
Make a hole in the center, break in the egg, and stir with your finger.
Gradually add water to form a stiff paste.
Roll out the dough with a rolling pin to fit the apples.
Prepare the filling
Stew the apples in a pan with ⅓ cup of water until soft.
Assemble and boil
Butter a basin and place the dough inside.
Fill the dough with the stewed apples and cover it.
Boil for 1 hour or 1 hour and 45 minutes if not stewed.
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.
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Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,774 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,150 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,551 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + clovetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,671 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef suet
- Its fat keeps the crust tender and rich as it cooks.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the dough's structure once mixed with water.
- Egg
- Binds the dough and adds structure and richness.
- Apples
- Supply the soft, moist filling and the fruity flavour.
The step that matters
Gradually add water to form a stiff paste. Adding water slowly lets you stop at a stiff dough. Too much water makes the paste sticky and hard to roll, and it can turn the crust heavy once boiled.
Swap the clove
The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, flour, egg, apple, sugar, lemon):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, flour, egg, apple, sugar, lemon. 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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