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Dessert

Apple Pudding, Boiled

A boiled pudding made with bread crumbs, suet, apples, sugar, eggs, milk, salt, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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, Boiled

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the bread crumbs, suet, sugar, salt, and nutmeg.

  2. Add the beaten eggs and milk, and mix well.

  3. Let the mixture stand for 1 hour to allow the bread to soak.

Boil and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture to a pudding cloth or mold and tie securely.

  2. Boil in a pot of water for about 1.5 hours.

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. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Apple + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  3. Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Bread + appletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Form the body of the pudding and absorb the milk and eggs as they soak.
Suet
Adds richness and fat, keeping the pudding moist as it cooks.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set as it cooks.
Milk
Moistens the bread crumbs so the mixture becomes a soft batter.
Apples
Add moisture, tartness, and fruity flavour to the pudding.
Moist sugar
Adds sweetness and a soft, moist flavour from its molasses content.

The step that matters

Letting the mixture stand for 1 hour. The bread must fully absorb the milk and eggs before boiling. Crumbs that stay dry can leave the pudding crumbly or patchy in texture, while fully soaked crumbs bind into an even, tender mass.

Swap the apple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, egg, milk, nutmeg. 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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