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Dessert

Ormond Orange Pudding

A pudding of oranges, sugar, milk, cornstarch, topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,696 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Ormond Orange Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oranges

  1. Remove seeds and skin from the oranges and cut them into small pieces.

  2. Combine the oranges with 1 cup of sugar and let them stand.

Make the pudding

  1. In a saucepan, stir 3 tablespoons of cornstarch into 1 quart of nearly boiling milk, mixing continuously until smooth.

  2. Once the mixture cools, add the oranges and sugar mixture.

  3. Whip the egg whites to make a meringue and cover the pudding with it.

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. Orange + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,696 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  4. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Oranges
Provide the main flavor, moisture and aroma, and their sugar-macerated juice sweetens the pudding.
Sugar
Sweetens the oranges and helps draw out their juice, adding sweetness to the pudding.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid base of the pudding.
Cornstarch
Thickens the hot milk into a smooth custard that sets as it cools.
Egg whites
Whipped into a meringue that forms a light, airy topping.

The step that matters

Stirring the cornstarch into the milk. Cornstarch clumps if it is added to hot liquid without constant stirring. Mixing it continuously until smooth gives an even, lump-free thickened base.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, 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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