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
Prepare the pudding
Mix the suet, bread crumbs, sugar, orange marmalade, and eggs together in a bowl.
Grease a mold and lay a few raisins at the bottom.
Pour the mixture into the mold and cover it.
Cook and make the sauce
Boil for 4 hours.
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.
-
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
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 a moist, tender texture to the pudding.
- Bread crumbs
- Provide body and help bind the mixture so it holds its shape.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and help it set firm as it cooks.
- Orange marmalade
- Adds sweetness, citrus flavor and moisture to the pudding.
- Butter
- Enriches the sauce, giving it a smooth, creamy body.
The step that matters
Boil for 4 hours. The pudding must cook long and steadily in gently simmering water so the eggs set and the suet melts into a light, moist texture. Boiling too hard or letting the water run low can make the pudding dense or uneven.
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.
More marmalade pudding recipes
You might also like
The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Bread Pudding153 recipes
Orange Cream Rice Pudding121 recipes
Orange Gelatin100 recipes