Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓
Marmalade Puddings
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pudding
In a bowl, mix the suet, bread-crumbs, sugar, and orange marmalade.
Add the eggs and combine well.
Place a few open raisins in the bottom of a mold.
Pour the mixture into the mold and boil for 4 hours.
Make the sauce
For the sauce, beat the butter and white sugar together until creamy.
Flavor the sauce with brandy or lemon.
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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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,768 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Orange + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,684 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Suet
- Adds richness and moisture, giving the pudding a tender, rich body as it cooks.
- Bread-crumbs
- Provides bulk and structure, soaking up moisture to hold the pudding together.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and help it set firm as it cooks.
- Orange marmalade
- Adds sweetness and bright citrus acidity that flavors the whole pudding.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and creaming with sugar gives the sauce a smooth texture.
The step that matters
Boil the pudding for the full 4 hours. Steaming or boiling slowly and for the full time lets the eggs and crumbs set through the centre. Cutting the time short leaves the pudding wet and loose.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, sugar, egg, raisin, butter, brandy):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Applefits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, egg, raisin, butter, brandy. 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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