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Dessert

Apple Amber Pudding

A baked apple pudding with butter, sugar, lemon, eggs, and pastry crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 Amber 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 the apples

  1. Wash the apples (do not peel or core) and cut them into small pieces.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the apples, butter, sugar, lemon rind, and juice. Cook until tender.

  3. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve to remove the peel and seeds.

Bake and top

  1. Beat the egg yolks into the apple mixture and pour it into a pie dish lined with pastry.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.

  3. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks with 2 teaspoons of sugar and spread on top of the pudding.

  4. Return to a cool oven at 300°F (150°C) until the egg whites are set.

  5. Serve hot or cold.

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 + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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 tart fruit flavour that forms the pudding's base.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the apple purée when baked, while whites whip into a stiff, airy topping.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the apple mixture.
Sugar
Sweetens the apples and helps the meringue-style topping hold its shape.
Lemon
Its juice adds acidity that brightens the apple flavour and its rind adds aroma.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites to stiff peaks. Whites that are under-beaten will not hold a firm topping, and over-beaten whites turn dry and grainy. Sugar added during beating stabilises the foam so it holds its shape in the oven.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, butter, egg, sugar. 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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