Name: Orange Pudding
Ingredients: 1 large orange; 1 lime; 1 lb powdered loaf sugar; 1 lb fresh butter; 8 eggs; ⅓ cup mixed wine and brandy; 1 teaspoon rose water; 5 ounces sifted flour

Why it works: Orange and lime match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 937 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Orange Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Zest the orange and lime, then juice them.
In a bowl, cream together the butter and powdered sugar.
Add the eggs, wine, brandy, rose water, and citrus juice and zest; mix well.
Prepare a sheet of puff pastry using the flour and butter, then lay it in a buttered dish.
Trim and notch the edges of the pastry.

Bake and serve

Pour the mixture into the pastry and bake for 1 hour.
Grate additional sugar over the pudding before serving.

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.

Orange + limetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together937 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Wine + brandytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,427 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Orange + rosetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together876 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,645 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Orange + winetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,046 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Provide structure and richness as they set during baking.
Butter: Adds richness and a tender texture when creamed with the sugar.
Powdered sugar: Sweetens the pudding and helps create a smooth, light creamed base.
Flour: Gives the pastry structure so it holds the filling.
Citrus juice and zest (in the method): Add acidity and bright orange and lime aroma to the filling.

Swap the lime

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (orange, sugar, butter, egg, wine, brandy, rose):

Vanillafits better
Lemonfits better
Figfits better
Limethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against orange, sugar, butter, egg, wine, brandy, rose. 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.