Name: Apple Pudding
Ingredients: 1 pound apples; ¼ pound bread crumbs; 1 ounce butter; 2 ounces sugar; 2 teaspoons lemon juice

Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Apple 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.

Assemble

Peel, core, and slice the apples thinly.
Butter a pie dish and add a layer of bread crumbs.
Add a layer of sliced apples, then sprinkle with sugar and lemon juice.
Repeat layers until the dish is full.
Dot the top with small pieces of butter.

Bake

Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 20 to 25 minutes.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Apple + breadtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,790 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,551 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,706 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples: Form the bulk of the pudding and release juices that moisten the crumbs as it bakes.
Bread crumbs: Soak up apple juices and give the pudding a soft, cohesive body.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, and helps the top brown as it bakes.
Sugar: Sweetens the apples and helps them caramelize slightly at the edges.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the apple flavor and balances the sugar.