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Dessert

Spiced Apple Pudding

A baked pudding made with bread crumbs, apples, raisins, spices, milk, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and apple 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 ↓

Spiced Apple Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the batter

  1. Scald the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the bread crumbs and scald for 1 to 2 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and mix in all the ingredients, adding the beaten egg whites last.

Bake

  1. Butter a pudding dish and fill it with the batter.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 40 minutes, watching to ensure it does not brown unevenly.

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. Clove + appletop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Brandy + appletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,291 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and help it set into a firm, custard-like pudding as they cook.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the hot milk to give the pudding body and a soft, tender crumb.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, and its proteins help the pudding set when heated.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and aids browning on the surface as it bakes.
Apples
Add moisture and tartness, and soften into the batter as it bakes.

The step that matters

Watching the bake for even browning. Sugar and proteins on the surface brown quickly in an oven, so uneven heat or too long a bake can scorch the top while the centre is still soft. Checking the pudding and rotating or covering it as needed helps it cook evenly.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Gingerfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, raisin, brandy, egg, apple, milk. 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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