Why it works: Carrot and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Carrot 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.
Prepare the carrots
Boil the red carrots until tender.
Cut off the red part of the carrots.
Rub the red part through a sieve to obtain ¼ pound of pulp.
Make the filling
In a bowl, combine the carrot pulp, French bread crumbs, sifted sugar, orange flower water, cream, candied citron, grated nutmeg, softened butter, and beaten eggs. Mix well until all ingredients are combined.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish lined with pastry around the rim.
Bake
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.
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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Carrot + orangetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together737 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Carrot + nutmegtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,424 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Orange + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,746 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Red carrots
- Provide the main body and sweetness of the pudding once puréed into pulp.
- French bread crumbs
- Add body and help absorb liquid so the pudding holds its shape.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and set it into a firm custard as it bakes.
- Cream
- Adds richness and moisture, giving a softer, silkier texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps brown the surface as it bakes.
The step that matters
Bake until set. Eggs set as they heat, so underbaking leaves the pudding loose and wet in the center, while overbaking can make it dry and grainy. Check that the center is just firm before removing it from the oven.
Swap the carrot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, sugar, orange, cream, nutmeg, butter, egg):
- Sweet potatofits better
- Potatofits about as well
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Carrotthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, orange, cream, nutmeg, butter, 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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