Why it works: Milk and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
Orange Puodixg
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the filling
Peel, seed, and cut the oranges into small pieces; add sugar and let stand.
In a bowl, stir cornstarch into nearly boiling milk mixed with a little water and the egg yolks.
Let the mixture cool, then combine it with the oranges.
Make the frosting
Beat the egg whites with ½ cup sugar until stiff.
Top and brown
Spread the frosting over the pudding and brown it in the oven.
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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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Orange + corntop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together586 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Orange + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,696 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Oranges
- Provide the main fruit flavour and moisture for the pudding.
- Milk
- Forms the creamy custard base that the pudding is built on.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the custard so the pudding holds its body when cooled.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the custard and add richness and thickening power.
- Egg whites
- Whipped with sugar to form a light foam that sets and browns as the topping.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the oranges and the frosting, and helps stabilise the whipped whites.
The step that matters
Beat the egg whites until stiff. Any trace of yolk or grease prevents whites from whipping to a stable foam, and under-beaten whites slump and weep on the pudding instead of browning into a light topping.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, corn, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Figfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, corn, egg. 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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