Why it works: Milk and flour 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 ↓
Orange Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the oranges
Combine the orange pieces and 1 cup of sugar in a bowl.
Let the mixture stand for one hour, stirring occasionally.
Make the custard
In a saucepan, heat 1 pint of sweet milk.
Beat the egg yolks in a bowl. Add 4 tablespoons of sugar and 1 heaping tablespoon of flour to the yolks.
Pour the egg mixture into the heated milk.
Cook the mixture until creamy.
Let the custard cool.
Mix the cooled custard with the oranges.
Top and serve
Beat the egg whites until stiff. Gradually add 1 tablespoon of sugar while beating the whites.
Pour the beaten egg whites over the orange mixture.
Lightly brown the mixture.
Serve cold.
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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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Orange + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,696 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and flour 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
- Oranges
- Provide the main fruit flavor and their juice moistens the pudding.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the milk into a creamy custard as they cook.
- Egg whites
- Beaten until stiff, they form a light foam that gives the topping its airy texture.
- Sweet milk
- Forms the base of the custard, providing moisture and richness.
- Flour
- Helps stabilize the custard so it sets thick rather than runny.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the oranges, custard, and meringue topping.
The step that matters
Cooking the custard until creamy. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but overheating can make them curdle or scramble. Cook gently and stir constantly so the custard thickens smoothly.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, egg, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, egg, flour. 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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