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Dessert

Apple Pudding, Steamed

A steamed pudding made with bread crumbs, suet, apples, sugar, eggs, milk, salt, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Apple Pudding, Steamed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pare, core, and chop the apples coarsely.

  2. Mix all the dry ingredients together.

Make the pudding

  1. Add the beaten eggs and milk, and mix well.

  2. Let the mixture stand for 1 hour to soak.

  3. If the mixture is not moist enough to drop from the spoon, add a little more milk.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour into a well-greased basin and steam for 2 hours.

  2. Serve with a suitable 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. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Apple + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  3. Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Bread + appletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Form the bulk of the pudding and absorb the milk and eggs to set a soft body.
Suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender as it steams.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm when steamed.
Milk
Moistens the crumbs and suet so the mixture softens and holds together.
Apples
Add moisture and a tart fruity flavour that balances the sweetness.
Moist sugar
Adds sweetness and a molasses-like depth of flavour.

The step that matters

Checking the consistency before steaming. Bread crumbs keep absorbing liquid as the mixture stands, so it can turn stiff. If it will not drop from the spoon, a little more milk keeps the pudding moist rather than dense and dry after steaming.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, sugar, egg, milk, nutmeg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, egg, milk, nutmeg. 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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