Name: Victorta Pudding
Ingredients: 6 tablespoons marmalade or strawberry jam; ½ pound butter; ½ pound flour; 4 eggs; 2 teaspoons baking powder; a little sugar

Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Victorta Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

In a bowl, mix the marmalade, butter, flour, eggs, baking powder, and sugar until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

Steam and serve

Steam the pudding for 2 hours.
Serve warm.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Butter: Adds fat and richness, giving the pudding a tender crumb.
Flour: Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
Eggs: Bind the batter and help set the pudding's structure as it cooks.
Baking powder: Releases gas during cooking so the pudding rises and becomes light.
Marmalade: Adds sweetness, acidity and fruity aroma to the pudding.