Why it works: Sugar and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 98,233 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
An Excellent Pudding Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until smooth.
Add the red raspberry jam and mix until well combined.
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 + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + red raspberrytop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together49 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Butter + red raspberrytop 30% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Sweetens the sauce and helps give it a smooth, creamy texture when creamed with butter.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, creating a smooth, creamy base for the sauce.
- Red raspberry jam
- Adds fruit flavor, sweetness and acidity, and moisture to the sauce.
The step that matters
Creaming the sugar and butter until smooth. Beating sugar into butter traps air and dissolves sugar granules, giving a smooth, even texture. Stopping early leaves a grainy sauce.
Swap the red raspberry
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Peachfits better
- Red raspberrythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter. 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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