Name: Apple Pudding, Baked
Ingredients: 6 sour cooking apples; ½ pint breadcrumbs; 2 to 3 tablespoons sugar; 1 ounce butter; 1 egg; 2 to 3 tablespoons water

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

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Pare, core, and slice the apples.

Make the apple mixture

Combine the apples, sugar, and water in a saucepan.
Cook the mixture until the apples are tender.
Stir in the butter and beaten egg.

Assemble and bake

Butter a pie dish.
Coat the bottom and sides of the pie dish with breadcrumbs.
Add the apple mixture to the pie dish.
Cover the mixture with the remaining breadcrumbs.
Dot the top with butter.
Cover the dish with greased paper.
Bake for about 30 minutes.

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.

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).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together16,478 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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 the pudding is built around.
Breadcrumbs: Form the coating and top layer that give the pudding its structure and soft crumb.
Egg: Binds the cooked apple mixture so it holds together when baked.
Sugar: Sweetens the tart apples and adds to the browning of the surface.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture to the apple mixture and browns the top.