Name: Apple Pudding
Ingredients: 2 cups all-purpose flour; 2 tablespoons lard; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 1 cup milk; 1 egg; a pinch of salt; 1 tablespoon sugar; apples, cut into eighths

Why it works: Milk and apple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,104 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. 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

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Butter a round tin.
Cover the bottom of the tin with a layer of apples.

Make and bake

In a bowl, rub together the flour and lard.
Add baking powder, milk, egg, salt, and sugar to the mixture.
Pour the batter over the apples in the tin.
Bake until golden and cooked through.

Serve

Serve with a nice hot sauce.

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.

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.

Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,104 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + appletop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together16,478 recipes

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

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

All-purpose flour: Provides the main structure of the batter as its proteins set during baking.
Lard: Rubbed into the flour to add tenderness by coating flour particles and limiting gluten formation.
Baking powder: Releases gas when heated, helping the pudding rise and become light.
Egg: Binds the batter and sets during baking to give the pudding its structure.
Milk: Adds moisture to the batter and helps it bake into a soft, tender crumb.
Apples: Soften and release moisture as they bake, adding fruitiness beneath the batter.