Name: Apple Pudding
Ingredients: apples, peeled, cored, and sliced; butter, for greasing; stale cake crumbs; 2 tablespoons melted butter; 2 eggs; 2 tablespoons sugar (more if apples are tart); 1 cup milk

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Apple Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
Butter a baking dish thickly.

Layer and bake

Layer sliced apples in the dish, alternating with stale cake crumbs and melted butter.
Add 2 tablespoons of melted butter for every pint of apples.
Add a thick layer of cake crumbs on top.
Bake until the apples are tender.
Beat together the eggs and sugar.
Pour the milk over the apples.
Bake until golden brown.
Serve with cream.

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.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Apple + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,104 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,706 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + sugartop 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: Provide the bulk and tart flavour, softening into a tender fruit layer during baking.
Stale cake crumbs: Absorb the butter and milk, giving the pudding a soft, cake-like body.
Eggs: Bind the custard with the milk so it sets into a tender, pourable-then-firm layer.
Milk: Forms the liquid custard with the eggs, adding moisture and helping the top set.
Sugar: Sweetens the custard and balances the tartness of the apples.