Why it works: Butter and apricot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,458 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Madeira Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Grease a tin cake mould with butter.
Roll out a piece of pastry dough to fit the bottom of the mould and place it inside.
Spread a layer of apricot preserves over the pastry.
Add another layer of pastry dough on top of the preserves.
Spread a layer of red preserves over this pastry.
Continue layering with pastry and preserves until the mould is full.
Carefully remove the pudding from the mould after cooking.
Boil the pudding until fully cooked, which may take a long time.
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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Butter + apricottop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,458 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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