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 Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Prepare a pudding paste as for pineapple pudding.
Mix the sliced apples with powdered sugar and cinnamon.
Combine the apple mixture with the pudding paste and mix thoroughly for 3 minutes.
Butter and sugar a 3‑pint mold well.
Steam and bake
Pour the mixture into the mold and place it in a tin pan filled with warm water halfway up the mold.
Steam in the oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour.
Serve
Turn the pudding onto a hot dessert dish and serve.
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 + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,598 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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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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Cinnamon + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,784 recipes
Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 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
- Apples
- Provide the main fruit flavour and moist, tender body to the pudding.
- Pudding paste (in the method)
- Forms the structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
- Powdered sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the apples brown lightly as they cook.
- Powdered cinnamon
- Adds warm aromatic spice that complements the apples.
The step that matters
Steaming in the water bath. The water should reach only halfway up the mold so steam and gentle heat cook the pudding evenly. If the water is too high or boils too hard, the pudding may cook unevenly or become watery.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cinnamon, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Figfits about as well
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon, butter. 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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