Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓
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.
Prepare the crumbs
Melt the butter in a pan until it turns bright brown.
Fry the breadcrumbs in the butter until they are also brown.
Remove most of the crumbs, leaving a layer about 1 inch thick in the pan.
Sprinkle sugar over the crumbs.
Make the apple sauce
Prepare apple sauce by boiling apples with sugar and cinnamon, then mash them.
Layer and bake
Layer the apple sauce over the crumbs.
Add another layer of fried crumbs and more sugar on top.
Repeat the layers until all ingredients are used, finishing with a layer of crumbs.
Dot the top with small bits of butter and sprinkle with sugar.
Cover the pan with a lid and place charcoal on top, or bake in the oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.
Turn out and serve hot.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,598 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Butter + appletop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + cinnamontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,784 recipes
Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Browns in the pan for nutty flavour and adds richness to the crumbs.
- Breadcrumbs
- Form the layers that soak up the apple and sugar while frying to a crisp, brown texture.
- Apples
- Cooked into a sauce that provides moisture and a soft, tart-sweet filling.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the layers and helps the top caramelise to a golden colour.
The step that matters
Frying the breadcrumbs until brown. Breadcrumbs that are only lightly coloured stay pale and soggy once layered with moist apple sauce. Frying them until well browned in butter drives off moisture and builds toasty flavour, so the layers keep some texture.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, cinnamon):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Figfits about as well
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, 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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