Name: Orange Pudding, Boiled
Ingredients: the thin yellow rind of 2 Seville oranges; 1 pint boiling milk; ¼ pound sponge cakes or finely grated bread crumbs; 3 tablespoons powdered sugar; juice of 1 small lemon; 2 ounces clarified butter; 4 eggs; 6 sweet almonds (optional)

Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Orange Pudding, Boiled

Ingredients

the thin yellow rind of 2 Seville oranges
1 pint boiling milk
¼ pound sponge cakes or finely grated bread crumbs
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
juice of 1 small lemon
2 ounces clarified butter
4 eggs
6 sweet almonds (optional)

Directions

Prepare the rind

Boil the orange rind until tender.
Drain the rind.
Pound the rind to a paste.

Make the mixture

Soak the sponge cakes or bread crumbs in boiling milk until cold.
Add the orange rind, powdered sugar, lemon juice, clarified butter, and beaten eggs to the mixture.
Mix all ingredients thoroughly.

Cook the pudding

Pour the mixture into a well-buttered mold, filling it completely.
Tie the mold in a floured cloth.
Plunge the mold into boiling water.
Boil quickly for about 1 hour, or steam or bake for 30 minutes.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Orange + almondtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,125 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,655 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Bind the mixture and set into a firm, light structure as the pudding cooks.
Sponge cakes or bread crumbs: Absorb the hot milk to form the body of the pudding.
Clarified butter: Adds richness and a tender, moist texture.
Powdered sugar: Adds sweetness and balances the bitter orange rind.
Seville orange rind: Supplies the main aroma and bitter citrus flavour.

The step that matters

Plunge the mold into boiling water. The water must be boiling when the mold goes in and kept at a steady boil. Eggs set through gentle, sustained heat; if the water cools or the mold is not fully covered, the pudding can be heavy or uneven.

“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.

Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes

Lemon Cake228 recipes

Bread Pudding153 recipes

Lemon Ice147 recipes

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Orange Pudding, Boiled