Why it works: Pear and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 218 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓
Cabinet Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Butter a 1-quart pudding mold thickly with cold butter.
Arrange the candied fruit in a decorative pattern on the bottom and sides of the mold.
Cut the sponge cake into large slices, one for the bottom and others to fit the sides.
Place the sponge cake slices inside the mold, pressing them against the fruit.
Chill the mold until set, then unmold and serve.
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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Pear + apricottop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together218 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Lime + orangetop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together937 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Orange + apricottop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together703 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Pear + orangetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together323 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Lime + apricottop 13% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together95 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the lime
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pear, orange, apricot, butter):
- Peachfits better
- Plumfits better
- Applefits better
- Limethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pear, orange, apricot, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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