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Dessert

Apple Pudding, Boiled

A boiled pudding made with flour, suet, apples, sugar, cloves, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,774 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Apple Pudding, Boiled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. In a bowl, mix the flour, suet, and baking powder to form a dough.

  2. Line a well-greased basin with the dough, reserving some for the lid.

Fill the basin

  1. Layer half of the apple slices in the basin.

  2. Sprinkle the apple slices with sugar and cloves.

  3. Add the remaining apple slices.

  4. Pour in the cold water.

Cover and cook

  1. Roll out the reserved dough for the lid, moisten the edges, and seal it to the basin.

  2. Cover with a floured cloth if boiling, or use greased paper if steaming.

  3. Cook for 2 to 3 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. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Flour + clovetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,671 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Flour + appletop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,140 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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

All-purpose flour
Forms the dough that encloses the filling and gives the pudding its structure.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the dough tender and rich during long cooking.
Baking powder
Releases gas that lightens the dough as it heats.
Apples
Provide the main filling, softening and turning moist and sweet as they cook.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a caramel note to the apples.

The step that matters

Sealing the lid. A tight seal keeps steam and water inside the basin during the long cook. If the edges leak, the pudding can become soggy or dry out and the filling may not cook evenly.

Swap the clove

The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, apple, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Jalapenofits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, apple, sugar. 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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