Name: Tipsy Pudding
Ingredients: sponge cake; Sherry wine; boiled custard; egg whites; jelly

Why it works: Sherry and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 29% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,324 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Tipsy Pudding

Ingredients

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.

Soak sponge cake in Sherry wine until saturated but not falling apart.
Pour boiled custard over the soaked cake.
If using a glass dish, decorate with poached beaten egg whites and dots of jelly.
If using a platter, squeeze sweetened and flavored beaten egg whites through a funnel in fancy shapes over the pudding.
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until the egg whites are a delicate brown.

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.

Sherry + eggtop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,324 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Sherry + winetop 32% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together0 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Wine + eggtop 33% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,918 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).