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Dessert

Paradise Pudding

A baked apple pudding with breadcrumbs, sugar, currants, brandy, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Paradise Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Pare, core, and mince the apples into small pieces.

  2. Mix the apples with the breadcrumbs, sugar, currants, salt, nutmeg, and lemon rind.

  3. Beat the eggs and moisten the mixture with them, then beat well.

  4. Stir in the brandy and pour the mixture into a buttered mold.

Boil and serve

  1. Tie the mold down with a cloth and boil for 1½ hours.

  2. Serve with sweet sauce.

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. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Apple + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,291 recipes

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

  4. Apple + curranttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and add richness and structure as they set during boiling.
Breadcrumbs
Provide the bulk and body that hold the pudding together and absorb moisture.
Apples
Add moisture and a tender texture, along with fruity sweetness and acidity.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the tartness of the apples and lemon.
Currants
Add chewy pockets of fruit sweetness throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Tie the mold down with a cloth and boil for 1½ hours. The mold must be sealed so steam does not escape or water does not enter. Keeping the water boiling steadily cooks the eggs and breadcrumbs through to a firm, evenly set pudding.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, apple, sugar, nutmeg, lemon, brandy):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, apple, sugar, nutmeg, lemon, brandy. 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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