Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Feather Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the meringue
Beat the egg whites until stiff.
Sift in the sugar while continuing to beat.
Pour half of the mixture into a pan and color the other half pink.
Bake and serve
Set the pans in a larger pan filled with hot water.
Bake for 30 minutes.
Serve with whipped cream.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a foam that gives the pudding its light, airy structure.
- Sugar
- Stabilizes the whipped egg white foam and adds sweetness.
The step that matters
Beat the egg whites until stiff. Egg white foam must be whipped to stiff peaks to trap air and hold its shape in the oven. Under-whipped whites collapse and make a dense, weeping pudding. Sugar should be added gradually while beating to help keep the foam stable.
“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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