Why it works: Apple and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,706 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Apple Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the apples
Stew the apples until soft, then pass them through a sieve while hot.
Assemble
Mix the sieved apples with the butter, sugar, and beaten eggs.
Line a pudding dish with puff pastry.
Pour the apple mixture into the lined dish.
Bake
Bake at 400°F (200°C) until set and lightly browned.
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.
-
Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Apples
- Provide the bulk and fruity flavour of the pudding once stewed and sieved to a smooth purée.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, contributing to a tender texture and rounder flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps it brown lightly in the oven.
- Eggs
- Set during baking to bind the purée into a firm, sliceable custard-like pudding.
- Puff pastry
- Forms a crisp, flaky case that holds the filling and browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Passing the stewed apples through a sieve while hot. Hot apples break down and pass through the sieve easily, producing a smooth purée. Cooling makes them stiffer and harder to press, leaving lumps that spoil the final texture.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonfits better
- Raisinfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg. 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.
More apple pudding recipes
You might also like
Apple Cake80 recipes
Apple Meringue75 recipes
Dried Apple Cake51 recipes
Apple Tart24 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.