Name: Apple Pudding, No 15
Ingredients: 2 eggs; 1 pint milk; flour (enough for a moderately thick batter); 1 heaping teaspoon baking powder; 1 pint tart chopped apples

Why it works: Milk and apple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,104 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Apple Pudding, No 15

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

Beat the eggs until light.
Stir in the milk and enough flour to make a moderately thick batter.
Add the baking powder and mix in the chopped apples.

Cook and serve

Boil in a pudding mold or covered tin pail.
Serve with hard sauce or liquid sauce flavored with jelly.

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.

Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,104 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour + appletop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,140 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Eggs: Beaten eggs add structure and help bind the batter together.
Flour: Flour gives the batter body so it sets into a moderately thick pudding.
Baking powder: Baking powder releases gas that lightens the pudding as it cooks.
Tart chopped apples: Tart apples add moisture and a sharp flavor that balances the sweetness.