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Dessert

Washington Pudding

A baked apple pudding with eggs, butter, cream, lemon peel, sugar, brandy, and a thin pastry crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Washington 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

  1. Scald and pulp the apples.

Make the filling

  1. Add the well-beaten eggs, butter, cream, lemon peel, sugar, and brandy.

  2. Mix until well combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a thin pastry crust.

  2. Bake in a mild oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. Apple + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,291 recipes

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

  4. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide the main body and fruity flavour of the pudding once scalded and pulped.
Eggs
Set the custard-like filling as they cook, giving it structure.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the filling.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, softening the set texture of the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances the tartness of the apples.
Brandy
Adds aroma and a warm flavour to the filling.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Eggs set as they heat, so the pudding is ready when the centre is firm but not overcooked. Baking too hot or too long can make the custard curdle, weep and turn rubbery.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Strawberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, egg, butter, cream, sugar, brandy. 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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