Name: A Good Pudding Sauce
Ingredients: one-half cupful sugar; one-quarter cupful butter; half pound of lean beef; a pint of cold water; a saltspoonful of salt; a tablespoonful of mushroom ketchup; a teaspoonful of arrowroot; one egg; one small onion; 4 basin a litt! hot; 1 which tter; one epper

Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

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.

Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,232 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Sugar + ketchuptop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together260 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,626 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sugar: Provides sweetness and helps give the sauce a smooth, rich body.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a silky mouthfeel in the finished sauce.
Egg: Adds protein that helps bind and emulsify the mixture into a cohesive sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the boiling water. Pour the boiling water in just before serving and stir thoroughly. The hot water warms the butter and sugar mixture so it becomes smooth and pourable, and thorough stirring spreads the heat and disperses the mixture evenly so no unmixed pockets remain.

Swap the arrowroot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, beef, mushroom, ketchup, egg, onion):

Chivefits better
Capsicumfits better
Leekfits better
Arrowrootthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, beef, mushroom, ketchup, egg, onion. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Beef	100g cooked	250
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Mushroom	1/2 cup sliced (35g)	15
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0
Arrowroot	not in our table	0

A Good Pudding Sauce