Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. 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 cut the apples as for sauce, then boil them until reduced to a pulp.
Make the mixture
Add the melted butter and well-whisked eggs to the apple pulp.
Beat the mixture for 2 to 3 minutes.
Assemble and bake
Butter a dish.
Add a layer of bread crumbs.
Add the apple mixture.
Add another layer of bread crumbs.
Dot with small pieces of butter.
Bake for about 30 minutes at 400°F (200°C).
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.
-
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
-
Apple + breadtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,790 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Apples
- Break down into a pulp that gives the pudding its moist, soft body.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and keeping the pudding tender as it bakes.
- Eggs
- Bind the apple pulp and crumbs together and help the pudding set when baked.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb the apple liquid and form the layers that give the pudding its structure.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and balances the tartness of the apples.
The step that matters
Beating the mixture for 2 to 3 minutes. Beating the eggs and butter into the apple pulp evenly distributes them, so the pudding sets uniformly rather than forming pockets of unbound egg or separated fat.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, bread):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Datesfits about as well
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, bread. 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.
More apple pudding recipes
You might also like
Apple Bread Pudding21 recipes
Bread Pudding153 recipes
Soft Ginger Bread85 recipes
Apple Cake80 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.