Name: Gooseberry Pudding
Ingredients: 2 cups gooseberries, tops and tails removed; 3 large eggs, well whisked; 1½ ounces butter, softened; ½ cup bread crumbs; Sugar, to taste; Puff pastry for border

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Gooseberry Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the gooseberries

Place gooseberries in a jar and cover with boiling water.
Boil until soft.
Pass the softened gooseberries through a coarse sieve to make pulp.

Make the pudding mixture

In a bowl, combine the gooseberry pulp, whisked eggs, butter, bread crumbs, and sugar. Mix well.

Bake and serve

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Lay a border of puff pastry around the edge of a pie dish.
Pour the pudding mixture into the dish and bake for about 40 minutes.
Sprinkle sifted sugar over the top before serving.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Bind the pulp and crumbs and set the pudding as it bakes.
Gooseberries: Provide the main fruit flavour and tartness, and moisture once pulped.
Butter: Adds richness and a soft, tender texture to the pudding.
Bread crumbs: Absorb the fruit liquid and help thicken the pudding.

“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.