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Dessert

Apple Tapioca Pudding

A steamed apple and tapioca pudding served cold with cream or warm with sweet sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Apple Tapioca Pudding

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

  1. Soak the tapioca in 3 cups of lukewarm water in a warm place, stirring occasionally.

  2. Place the apples in a deep dish with 1 cup of lukewarm water and cover.

Bake

  1. Steam the apples in a 350°F (175°C) oven until soft, turning them if they cook at the bottom.

  2. If there is more than 1/3 cup of liquid, pour some out before adding the soaked tapioca.

  3. Add the soaked tapioca to the dish.

  4. If the apples are not very sweet, fill the center with sugar.

  5. Bake for 1 hour after adding the soaked tapioca.

Serve

  1. Serve cold with cream or warm with hard sweet 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.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

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

  3. Apple + creamtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,089 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

Tapioca
Swells as it soaks and bakes, thickening the liquid into a pudding texture.
Apples
Soften during steaming and provide the main fruit flavor and body of the pudding.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to the apples, to taste, if they are not sweet enough.

The step that matters

Pouring off excess liquid before adding the tapioca. Too much liquid in the dish can leave the pudding thin and watery, because the tapioca thickens only the liquid it is given. Checking the amount before adding the soaked tapioca helps the pudding set to the intended consistency.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream. 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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