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Dessert

Boston Apple Pudding

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Boston Apple Pudding

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.

Make the apple base

  1. Peel and core the apples, then cut them into small pieces.

  2. Place the apples in a saucepan with water, cinnamon, cloves, and lemon peel.

  3. Stew over low heat until the apples are soft.

  4. Sweeten with moist sugar and pass through a fine sieve.

Assemble and bake

  1. Add the egg yolks, egg white, butter, grated nutmeg, grated lemon peel, and lemon juice; mix well.

  2. Line a pie dish with puff pastry, pour in the apple mixture, and bake for 30 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide the bulk of the filling and, once stewed and sieved, a smooth, soft texture.
Egg yolks
Enrich the filling and help it set into a custard-like texture when baked.
Egg white
Adds structure and helps the filling set as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving a softer mouthfeel to the filling.
Puff pastry
Forms the crisp, flaky crust that holds the filling.
Moist sugar
Sweetens the apples and adds a slightly caramel-like depth.

The step that matters

Stewing the apples until soft. Apples that are under-cooked stay firm and grainy, so they will not sieve smoothly. Cooking over low heat until fully soft lets the pectin and fibres break down for a smooth filling.

Swap the apple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, clove, lemon, sugar, egg, butter, nutmeg. 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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