Name: Apricot Pudding
Ingredients: 1 tin of apricots; 6 sponge cakes; ½ cup of milk; 2 eggs; sugar to taste

Why it works: Apricot and milk work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 826 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Apricot Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the fruit

Simmer the apricots in a saucepan with a little sugar for 30 minutes.
Remove from heat and mash the apricots with a fork.
Crumble the sponge cakes and mix them with the apricots.

Bake and serve

Beat the eggs with the milk and pour the mixture over the apricots.
Pour everything into a greased mold and cover it.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 30 minutes.
Turn out and serve hot or cold.

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.

Apricot + milktop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together826 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,630 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together77,875 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Eggs: Set the pudding, binding the apricots and sponge into a firm custard-like texture.
Milk: Adds moisture that soaks into the sponge and cooks into a soft, tender crumb.
Sponge cakes: Provide the bulk and soft structure that the custard holds together.
Apricots: Supply fruit flavour, sweetness and moisture to the pudding.