Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Orange Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the batter
Cream the butter in a bowl.
Stir in the grated orange rind, juice, and sugar.
Add the well-beaten eggs and rolled crackers, mixing well.
Pour in the milk and mix until combined.
Bake
Bake in a pudding dish lined with pastry at 400°F (200°C) until set.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Orange + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,696 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help it set into a custard-like texture when baked.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a soft, tender texture to the batter.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pudding and helps it brown lightly in the oven.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and liquid so the batter bakes into a soft, creamy pudding.
- Boston crackers
- Thicken the batter as they soak up liquid and add body to the pudding.
- Oranges
- Provide flavour through their juice, pulp and rind, adding acidity and aroma.
The step that matters
Pour in the milk and mix until combined. Eggs set into a custard only when the mixture is evenly combined and not overbeaten, so the pudding bakes smooth rather than curdled or unevenly firm.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, egg, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, egg, butter. 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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