Why it works: Apple and white wine work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 372 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓
Apple Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the apple marmalade
Cut the apples into very thin slices and boil them for 30 minutes with sugar, currants, raisins, and white wine until they mash into a marmalade.
Assemble the pudding
Grease the bottom of a deep circular dish with butter.
Layer crushed sugar biscuits at the bottom, followed by a layer of apple marmalade, and repeat, forming a conical shape with biscuit on top.
Beat the eggs with milk and kirsch-wasser, then pour this mixture over the pudding.
Bake and serve
Place the dish on a three-legged stand in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 minutes.
Serve immediately after removing from the oven.
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 + white winetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together372 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,083 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
-
Raisin + biscuittop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,180 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
-
Apple + curranttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,918 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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 marmalade that forms the moist, sweet filling layers.
- Eggs
- Set with the milk into a custard that binds the pudding and holds its shape.
- Sugar biscuits
- Soak up moisture and give the pudding a crumbly, structured body between apple layers.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard that the eggs set in.
- Lump sugar
- Sweetens the apple marmalade and helps it break down into a smooth mash.
The step that matters
Boil the apples until they mash into a marmalade. Apples must cook long enough to break down fully; under-cooked slices stay firm and leave the layers uneven and watery rather than spreadable.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, raisin, white wine, butter, biscuit, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Pearfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, raisin, white wine, butter, biscuit, 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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