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Dessert

Amber Pudding

A baked apple pudding with butter, sugar, lemon, egg yolks, topped with whipped egg whites and castor sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Amber 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 apples

  1. Peel and core the apples, then slice them.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the apples, sugar, butter, lemon peel, and lemon juice.

  3. Cook the apples until tender, then pass them through a sieve into a large bowl.

Make the pudding

  1. Stir in the egg yolks to the apple puree.

  2. Line a pie dish with puff pastry and pour the mixture into it.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 20 minutes.

Top and finish

  1. Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  2. Once the pudding is set, spread the whipped egg whites on top and sprinkle with castor sugar.

  3. Return to the oven to set, ensuring it does not 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. 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. Sugar + buttertop 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
Break down into a soft puree that forms the body of the pudding.
Egg yolks
Enrich the apple puree and help it set into a custard-like texture.
Egg whites
Whip into a stiff foam that forms the light topping.
Moist sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the apples caramelise to an amber colour.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Returning the pudding to the oven. Egg whites over-bake quickly, so a low, gentle heat is needed to set the topping without browning it or making it rubbery. Keep an eye on colour while it sets.

Swap the apple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, 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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