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Dessert

Excelsior Apple Pudding

A boiled pudding made with bread crumbs, suet, apples, currants, brown sugar, almonds, brandy, spices, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Excelsior Apple Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. In a large bowl, mix the bread crumbs, suet, apples, currants, brown sugar, and chopped almonds. Add cinnamon and spice to taste.

  2. Incorporate the egg whites just before adding the brandy.

Cook

  1. Boil the mixture for three hours in a well-buttered pudding bag or mold.

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. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Bread crumbs
Provides the bulk and body that holds the pudding together.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it cooks.
Apples
Contribute moisture and a tender, fruity texture.
Currants
Add sweetness and chewy bursts of fruit throughout.
Egg whites
Help bind the mixture and give it a light, set structure.

The step that matters

Adding the egg whites. Egg whites should be incorporated just before the brandy so they keep their structure and help bind the mixture. Adding them too early or overmixing can deflate the batter and make the texture heavy.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, apple, sugar, almond, brandy, cinnamon, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, apple, sugar, almond, brandy, cinnamon, 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.

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