Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓
Marlborough 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 filling
Stew the apples.
Strain the apples.
Add the cream, lemon rind, lemon juice, eggs, and sugar to the apples.
Bake
Line a deep baking dish with potato paste.
Bake for 1 hour at 350°F (175°C).
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Lemon + potatotop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,230 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Apple + potatotop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together603 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,551 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Cream + potatotop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,481 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Apples
- Provide the bulk and fruity base of the filling once stewed and strained.
- Eggs
- Set the creamy filling as it bakes, giving it structure and body.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a smooth, soft texture to the filling.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and balances the tartness of the lemon.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and cuts the richness of the custard.
- Potato paste
- Forms the pastry-like crust that holds the filling in the baking dish.
The step that matters
Straining the stewed apples. If the apples are not strained well, excess liquid and lumps will thin the filling and stop it from setting smoothly when baked with the eggs.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, lemon, egg, sugar, potato):
- Vanillafits better
- Orangefits better
- Raspberryfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, lemon, egg, sugar, potato. 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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