Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Fruit Sponge-Cake 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.
Make the batter
Soak the sponge cake crumbs in the boiling milk and leave over heat until it forms a scalding batter.
Stir in the butter, sugar, and flour (previously mixed with cold milk).
Pour the mixture into a bowl to cool.
Once nearly cool, stir in the floured currants and flavoring.
Gently fold in the whipped egg whites.
Bake and serve
Pour into a buttered mold and bake for 30 to 45 minutes at 350°F (175°C).
Let cool after baking.
Before serving, top with a meringue made from the whipped egg whites, sugar, whipped cream, and white wine.
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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Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,673 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,245 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Sponge-cake crumbs
- Form the bulk of the pudding and soak up the hot milk to set its structure.
- Egg whites
- Whipped air lifts the batter and gives the baked pudding a lighter texture.
- Flour
- Thickens the batter and adds structure as it cooks.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
- Milk
- Moistens the crumbs and turns them into a soft, scalding batter.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps brown the top of the pudding.
The step that matters
Gently fold in the whipped egg whites. Whipped egg whites trap air that leavens the pudding. Stirring them in vigorously knocks out that air, leaving a dense, heavy result.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, sugar, flour, egg, almond):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, sugar, flour, egg, almond. 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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