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Dessert

Apple Pudding, Baked

A baked apple pudding made with apples, breadcrumbs, sugar, butter, egg, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,706 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Apple Pudding, Baked

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the apples

  1. Peel, core, and slice the apples.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the apples, sugar, and water; cook until tender.

  3. Stir in the butter and beaten egg.

Assemble and bake

  1. Coat the bottom and sides of a buttered pie dish with breadcrumbs.

  2. Add the apple mixture, cover with remaining breadcrumbs, and dot with butter.

  3. Bake at 300°F (150°C) for about 1 hour, covering with greased paper to prevent browning.

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 + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 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

Sour cooking apples
Provide the main bulk and tart flavour that balances the sugar.
Breadcrumbs
Form the crumb layers that hold the pudding together and absorb moisture from the apples.
Egg
Binds the apple mixture so it sets into a cohesive, sliceable pudding.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing flavour and a tender texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the tart apples and helps them caramelise slightly as they bake.

The step that matters

Covering with greased paper. Baking for about an hour can brown the top too far before the centre sets. A greased paper cover slows surface browning so the pudding cooks through evenly.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, 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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