Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Sponge Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Beat the eggs until light and fluffy.
Gradually add the sugar and continue to beat until well combined.
Sift in the flour and baking powder, folding gently until just mixed.
Steam and serve
Pour the mixture into a pudding mold.
Steam for 1½ hours.
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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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Eggs
- Whipped to trap air, giving the pudding its light, airy structure.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps stabilize the whipped egg foam.
- Flour
- Provides structure that sets the pudding as it cooks.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during cooking, helping the pudding rise and stay light.
The step that matters
Folding in the flour and baking powder. Overmixing knocks out the air whipped into the eggs, making the pudding dense. Fold gently only until the flour disappears so the batter stays light.
“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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