Why it works: Apple and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,551 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Apple Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the apples
Peel, core, and weigh the apples.
Place them in an enamelled saucepan with 1 tablespoon of water and stew gently until soft.
Pass the apples through a wire sieve and allow to cool.
Make the filling
Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy.
Add the apple pulp, grated lemon rind, and whipped egg whites to the mixture.
Bake and serve
Pour into a small pie dish lined with rough puff pastry.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 30 to 40 minutes.
Cover with caster sugar and serve hot or cold.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,551 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Apples
- Provide the bulk and moist, soft body of the pudding as a purée.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a tender, creamy texture when beaten with sugar.
- Eggs
- Whipped whites add air and help the pudding set and rise in the oven.
- Castor sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps create a creamy base when beaten with butter.
The step that matters
Folding in the whipped egg whites. Whipped whites hold air that gives the pudding its lift. Stirring them in too vigorously knocks out that air, leaving a denser result after baking.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, sugar, lemon):
- Vanillafits better
- Orangefits better
- Raspberryfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, sugar, lemon. 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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