Name: Nantucket Pudding
Ingredients: 1 quart of berries or any small fruit; 2 tablespoons of flour; 2 tablespoons of sugar; Frosting or whipped eggs and sugar for topping; Cream for serving

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Nantucket Pudding

Ingredients

1 quart of berries or any small fruit
2 tablespoons of flour
2 tablespoons of sugar
Frosting or whipped eggs and sugar for topping
Cream for serving

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the fruit base

Simmer the berries or small fruit with flour and sugar in a saucepan.

Top and bake

Turn the mixture into molds and cover with frosting or whipped eggs and sugar.
Brown lightly in the oven at 350°F (175°C).

Serve

Serve with cream.

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.

Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,481 recipes

Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Berries or small fruit: Provides the main body, moisture and fruity flavor of the pudding.
Flour: Thickens the fruit juices as they simmer, giving the mixture body.
Sugar: Sweetens the fruit and helps it brown lightly on top.
Frosting or whipped eggs and sugar: Forms a light topping that sets and browns in the oven.

“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.