Name: Washington Pudding
Ingredients: 6 eggs; ¾ pound butter; ¾ pound sugar; 1 pound marmalade

Why it works: Egg and butter 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 ↓

Washington Pudding

Ingredients

6 eggs
¾ pound butter
¾ pound sugar
1 pound marmalade

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

Beat the eggs well.
Mix in the butter, sugar, and marmalade until combined.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish.

Bake and serve

Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until set.
Serve warm.

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.

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: Beaten eggs provide structure and help the pudding set as it bakes.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a tender, moist texture.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps give the pudding its browned, tender crumb.
Marmalade: Adds fruit flavour, sweetness, and acidity to the custard.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Baking only until the centre is set keeps the eggs tender; overbaking makes them firm and grainy, and the pudding dries out.

“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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Washington Pudding