Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Golden Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
Mix all ingredients together well.
If the mixture is not sticky enough, add the juice of another orange.
Fill a greased mold or basin, cover with cloth or greased paper, or a lid if using a tin pudding mold.
Steam and serve
Steam for 1.5 hours.
Serve with sauce made from orange or lemon juice.
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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Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,634 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Bread + orangetop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,084 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Bread + lemontop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,445 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,212 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Fine bread crumbs
- Provide the bulk of the pudding and absorb the juices to form a soft body.
- Suet
- Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
- Moist sugar
- Adds sweetness and moisture while helping the pudding brown slightly.
- Orange juice and pulp
- Adds moisture and bright citrus acidity and flavor.
- Lemon juice and rind
- Adds sharp acidity and aromatic citrus oil from the rind.
The step that matters
Check the mixture's stickiness. If the mixture is too dry, the crumbs will not bind and the pudding may crumble. Adding more juice gives moisture that helps it hold together when steamed.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, sugar, lemon):
- Orangethe original
- Figfits about as well
- Vanillafits about as well
- Raspberryfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, lemon. 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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