Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Cabinet Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Cream the butter and sugar together.
Add the beaten egg yolks, grated lemon rind, and lemon juice.
In a separate bowl, combine the bread crumbs, milk, citron, and beaten egg whites.
Mix the two mixtures together until well combined.
Soak the macaroons in Sherry wine until covered.
Line a melon mold with the bread mixture, layer with soaked macaroons, and repeat until all ingredients are used, finishing with a layer of bread mixture.
Cover the mold tightly and steam for 2½ hours.
Remove from the mold 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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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Lemon + winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,157 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, bread, milk, sherry, wine):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Applefits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, bread, milk, sherry, wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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