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Dessert

Apple Ami Bread Pudding

A baked pudding made with stale bread, sour apples, sugar, cinnamon, water, butter, egg, milk, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Apple Ami Bread Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare and layer

  1. Dip thin slices of stale bread in cold water and slightly butter them.

  2. Layer bread in a buttered pudding dish, followed by a thick layer of sliced sour apples sweetened to taste and seasoned with cinnamon.

  3. Repeat layers of bread and apples.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour a few tablespoons of water over the top, cover with a plate, and bake at 350°F (175°C) for two hours.

  2. For a richer pudding, pour a custard made with 1 egg, ½ cup milk, and 1 tablespoon sugar over the pudding instead of water.

  3. Serve warm with cream and sugar or a liquid 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. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Stale bread
Dry, absorbent slices soak up moisture and hold the layers together as the pudding sets.
Sour apples
Tart fruit provides acidity and moisture that balances the sweetness and softens during baking.
Sugar
Sweetens the apples and adds flavor that balances their tartness.
Egg
In the richer version, sets the custard so the pudding holds together with a smooth texture.
Milk
In the richer version, forms the custard with the egg, adding richness and softness.

The step that matters

Bake covered with water over the top. Covering the dish with a plate and adding a little water traps steam so the bread softens and the apples cook through before the top dries and browns too much.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, cinnamon, butter, egg, 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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