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Dessert

Apple Tapioca

A baked apple dish with tapioca, sugar, and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,774 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Apple Tapioca

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 tapioca

  1. Soak the tapioca in enough cold water to cover overnight or for several hours.

  2. Drain the tapioca, then add boiling water and salt; cook in a double boiler until transparent.

Prepare the apples

  1. Wipe, core, and peel the apples, then stick 2 or more cloves in each apple.

  2. Place the apples in a buttered pudding dish and fill the centers with sugar.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the cooked tapioca over the apples and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until the apples are soft.

  2. Serve with sugar and cream.

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 + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Clove + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together17,182 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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

Pearl tapioca
Thickens the liquid and sets into a soft, translucent pudding as it cooks.
Sour apples
Hold their shape while softening and add tartness that balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Sweetens the dish and draws juices from the apples into the sugary centers.

The step that matters

Cooking the tapioca until transparent. Tapioca starch must be fully gelatinized in hot water to become clear and thicken properly. Stopping early leaves a cloudy, chalky texture with a raw starchy taste, so the pearls should look fully translucent before the pudding goes into the oven.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Nutmegfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, 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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