Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓
Apple Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the batter
Soak the bread crumbs in the milk until soft.
Stir in the sugar.
Assemble and bake
Place the apples in the bottom of a pudding dish, not too closely together.
Pour the batter over and around the apples.
Set the dish in a pan of boiling water.
Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes at 300°F (150°C), covering until nearly done.
If preferred, cut each apple two-thirds through without separating.
Arrange the cut apples.
Bake as before, allowing a little longer if needed.
Serve with cold cream or stewed raspberries, or enjoy without sauce.
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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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Apple + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Apple + breadtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,790 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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
- Apples
- Hold their shape and turn tender and sweet as they bake in the custard.
- Stale bread crumbs
- Soak up the milk and set into a soft, pudding-like body.
- Sweet milk
- Provides the liquid that softens the crumbs and forms the custard.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the apples.
The step that matters
Setting the dish in boiling water. A water bath moderates the heat reaching the custard, so it cooks gently and evenly without curdling or drying at the edges.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, sugar, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Applethe original
- Peachfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, milk. 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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