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Dessert

Dried Apple Pudding

A steamed pudding made with dried apples, molasses, spices, and a sweet sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Dried Apple Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apples

  1. Soak the dried apples overnight in just enough water to cover them.

  2. Cook the soaked apples in 1½ cups molasses for 1 hour.

Make and steam the pudding

  1. In a bowl, combine the beaten egg, milk, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, grated nutmeg, shortening, raisins, and enough flour to thicken the mixture.

  2. Add the cooked apples to the mixture and stir well.

  3. Steam the pudding for 3 hours.

Make the sauce

  1. Boil 1 cup of water.

  2. Whisk in 2 teaspoons cornstarch until thickened.

  3. Add the juice of 1 lemon and 1 cup sugar to the sauce.

  4. Boil the sauce for 10 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.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Dried apples
Provide the main body and fruit flavor of the pudding as they soften during cooking.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and a rich, caramel-like flavor while moistening the apples.
Egg
Binds the batter so the pudding holds together after steaming.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses and sour milk to lighten the pudding's texture.
Flour
Thickens the batter and gives the pudding its structure.
Cornstarch
Thickens the sauce so it becomes smooth and glossy.

The step that matters

Whisk in the cornstarch until thickened. Cornstarch must be fully dispersed and brought to a boil to gelatinize and thicken the sauce. Adding it to liquid without whisking can cause lumps, and undercooking leaves a thin, starchy taste.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, egg, milk, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, raisin):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Orangefits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, egg, milk, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, raisin. 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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