Skip to main content
Dessert

Fruit Batter Pudding

A baked fruit pudding made with a batter of flour, milk, sugar, butter, and eggs, topped with cherries or gooseberries and apples.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Ginger and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,324 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Fruit Batter Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the flour, milk, sugar, butter, and eggs to make a light batter.

  3. Grease a deep baking dish and pour in half of the batter.

Layer and bake

  1. Layer the cherries or gooseberries and chopped apples on top.

  2. Sprinkle with a little sugar, ginger, and nutmeg.

  3. Pour the remaining batter over the fruit.

  4. Bake for a little more than an hour until golden.

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. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Apple + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and help it set into a light, custard-like crumb as it bakes.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the batter together around the fruit.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to the batter.
Milk
Loosens the batter and adds moisture for a softer crumb.
Cherries or gooseberries
Supply the fruit flavour and juices that moisten the pudding as it cooks.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the top brown to a golden colour.

The step that matters

Layering the fruit between batter halves. Fruit releases juice as it bakes, so it should sit between the batter layers rather than against the dish walls or on top, which helps the pudding cook evenly and keeps the fruit from sinking or scorching.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, sugar, butter, egg, apple, nutmeg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, sugar, butter, egg, apple, nutmeg. 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.

You might also like

Apple PuddingApple Pudding256 recipesGinger CookiesGinger Cookies213 recipesGinger CakeGinger Cake93 recipesSoft Ginger BreadSoft Ginger Bread85 recipes