Why it works: Butter and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Orange Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the filling
Grate the rind from the oranges and squeeze the juice.
Cream the butter, then gradually add the sugar.
Beat in the egg yolks one by one.
Add the orange rind and juice to the mixture.
Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and gently fold them into the mixture.
Bake
Bake in pie plates lined with pastry.
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.
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,212 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + orangetop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,301 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Sugar and orange barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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
- Butter
- Creams with sugar to trap air and give the filling a rich, tender texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps cream the butter into a light base.
- Eggs
- Yolks enrich and thicken the filling, while whites whipped to stiff peaks lighten it.
- Oranges
- Rind adds fragrant oil and juice adds acidity and moisture to the filling.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Whites whipped to stiff peaks hold air that gives the filling its lightness. Stirring them in vigorously knocks out that air, so fold gently and keep the mixture airy.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonfits better
- Raisinfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, 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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