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 ↓
Charlotte De Pommes
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a very moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the dish
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Butter a deep pudding dish.
Line the bottom and sides of the dish with buttered bread slices.
Fill and bake
Fill the dish with sliced apples and sprinkle with nutmeg.
Mix together ½ cup of water and ½ cup of molasses, then pour over the apples.
Sprinkle with ½ cup of brown sugar and cover with more buttered bread slices, ensuring the top is even and smooth.
Cover the top with a tin pie plate.
Bake for about 2 hours.
Serve
When done, loosen the edges with a knife and carefully turn it out onto a dish.
Serve hot with custard sauce flavored with rum, or with sugar and cream.
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.
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,790 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Bread + appletop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,790 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,997 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Bread
- Buttered slices line the dish and cap the top, forming the sturdy shell that holds the fruit.
- Sliced apples
- Supply the fruit filling that softens and turns tender as the dish bakes.
- Molasses
- Adds dark sweetness and a deep flavor that colors the filling and the bread.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and caramel notes that deepen during the long bake.
- Butter
- Greases the dish and bread, adding richness and helping the bread brown.
The step that matters
Turning it out onto a dish. Loosening the edges with a knife first helps the soft, moist bread release cleanly from the dish, so the shape holds when inverted.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, bread, apple, molasses, sugar):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Clovefits about as well
- Nutmegthe original
- Gingerfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, bread, apple, molasses, 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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