Name: Simple Fruit Puddings
Ingredients: thin slices of baker's bread, crusts removed; stewed fruit (such as apricots or peaches); sugar for serving; 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 ↓

Simple Fruit Puddings

Ingredients

thin slices of baker's bread, crusts removed
stewed fruit (such as apricots or peaches)
sugar for serving
cream for serving

Directions

Layer the bread and stewed fruit in a dish, starting and ending with fruit.
Place a plate on top and let it cool before refrigerating.
Serve chilled with sifted sugar or cream and sugar.
Alternatively, toast and butter the bread, layer with hot stewed fruit, and serve warm with rich hot 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.

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).
Bread + apricottop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together178 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Apricot + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,630 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Bread + creamtop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,789 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Apricot + creamtop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,116 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).