Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Marmalade Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Combine the chopped suet, flour, sugar, breadcrumbs, and Magic Baking Powder in a bowl.
Beat the egg until light, then mix it with milk and orange marmalade.
Combine all ingredients.
Steam and serve
Pour the mixture into a well-greased mold.
Cover the mold with a sheet of paper.
Steam the pudding for 4 hours.
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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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Orange + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,696 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
-
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Suet
- Adds richness and fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender during steaming.
- Breadcrumbs
- Provide bulk and a soft, light crumb structure.
- Egg
- Binds the mixture and gives it structure as it sets.
- Magic baking powder
- Releases gas that helps the pudding rise and lighten.
- Orange marmalade
- Adds sweetness, citrus aroma and a bright, tangy flavor.
The step that matters
Steam for the full time. Steaming gently and steadily cooks the batter through without drying it. Letting the water boil dry or lowering the heat for too long can leave the pudding dense or undercooked in the centre.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, egg, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, egg, milk. 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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