Name: Pineapple Pudding
Ingredients: stale sponge cake; sherry wine; freshly chopped pineapple; powdered sugar

Why it works: Sherry and pineapple work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 228 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Pineapple Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

stale sponge cake
sherry wine
freshly chopped pineapple
powdered sugar

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Butter a pudding dish.
Place slices of stale sponge cake in the bottom and wet them with a little sherry wine.
Cover the cake with freshly chopped pineapple.
Sprinkle powdered sugar over the pineapple.
Add more cake, wine, and pineapple until the dish is full, ensuring the top layer is cake and well soaked.
Cover the dish closely and bake for one hour at 400°F (200°C).
Serve hot with lemon sauce.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Sherry + pineappletop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together228 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Wine + pineappletop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together325 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
Pineapple + sugartop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,841 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sherry + sugartop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,141 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Wine + sugartop 31% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together9,581 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).