Why it works: Sugar and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,212 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
To Make an Orange Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Put two oranges and two lemons into five quarts of water and boil until the rinds are tender.
Take them out and, when cold, slice them thin and pick out the seeds.
Put a pound of loaf sugar into a pint of water and bring to a boil.
Slice twelve pippins, pared and cored, into pieces.
Stew the fruit
Lay the pippins in the lemons and oranges and stew until tender.
Assemble and bake
Cover the dish with puff paste and lay the fruit in alternate layers.
Pour the syrup over the layers, put some slips of paste across, and bake it.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 2 of 3 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 2 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Orange | 1 medium (131g) | 62 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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.
-
Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,212 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and orange barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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
- Pippins
- Apples hold their shape when stewed and give the pudding its body and mild sweetness.
- Oranges
- Peel and flesh add aroma and a bright, slightly bitter citrus flavour.
- Lemons (in the method)
- Adds acidity and fragrant peel oils that sharpen the sweetness of the syrup.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the syrup that soaks into the fruit layers.
- Puff paste (in the method)
- Forms a crisp, rising crust that browns in the oven over the fruit.
The step that matters
Boil the citrus until the rinds are tender. Citrus peel is tough and bitter when raw. Boiling it fully softens the rind and mellows its bitterness, so the slices are pleasant to eat once cooled and sliced.
“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.
More orange pudding recipes
You might also like
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Orange Cream Rice Pudding121 recipes
Orange Gelatin100 recipes
Orange Sherbet73 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.